Nothing Breaks Like a Heart
by Green Kneesocks
Summary: Mob confesses to Reigen a few years too early. It does not go well. Will they get over this? Will they ever get what they both so clearly want? Or will they both make the most terrible mistakes that two people could ever make? fem!Mob MobXReigen MobXSerizawa
1. Nothing Breaks Like a Heart

It's a normal day. The sun shines, the birds sing, and the giant broccoli tree casts it's shadow across the city. Just a normal day in the life of one Kageyama Shigeko, otherwise known as Mob. She's Mob to her friends, Mob to her enemies, Mob to those who love her, and Mob so those she loves. She's hardly ever referred to as Shigeko and that's the way she likes it. Shigeko is not Mob. Shigeko is an entity of it's own. One who lives under Mob's skin just waiting to come out. To protect them. To get them what they want.

Today they're getting what they want.

They've been waiting for a long time, far too long. Life is short, life is fragile…

_Master Reigen holding a gun, ready to kill for them._

_Master Reigen dead if not for Serizawa's umbrella._

Life is short, life is fragile, and death lurked around every corner. She was not fragile. They were not fragile. Those that they loved were fragile. The world was made of glass. The people in it china dolls. Their skin painted pink, their eyes painted blue, brown, and green. They were china and paint and they could shatter at any time.

Master Reigen could shatter. She could lose him. She could lose him forever. She could lose him forever before she could tell him how she felt. Before she could show him how she felt. She's going to show him today. As soon as he's done with his last client. As soon as he sits down at his desk she'll tell him how she feels. She'll show him. It'll be just like she always pictured it.

_Her mouth against his. _

_His hands reaching under her skirt._

_Her legs wrapped around him. _

_Him telling her that he loves her for real._

Serizawa went home for the day so they'll have all the time in the world. The two of them here in this office, alone together. All alone. Mob and Shigeko are in agreement for once in their life, this is right. This is what they want. They're going to get what they want and it will be amazing.

Master Reigen comes out of the massage room. He's practically drenched in sweat. His face is flushed, his suit jacket is off, his tie is loose, and first two buttons of his shirt are undone. Her hands shake as she writes out the client's receipt. Does Master Reigen know how he looks? Does he know what he does to her?

He wants this too. She's seen the way he looks at her. She's seen the way his eyes linger on her when he thinks she's not paying attention. The way he'll find little ways to touch her. His hand on her waist, her back, tugging on her hair. The way he lets her rest her head on his chest, his lap. The way they'll even nap together on the office couch sometimes. Him being the big spoon and her the little spoon.

She lives for those moments when he's half asleep. He pulls her close, he buries his face in her hair, he's even forgotten who she was and let his hand run low, to her stomach, to between her breasts. It's a pity he's being more conscientious now. He woke up once, slowly, and for a few minutes he just laid there against her. Hard. She pushed herself into him. He pushed back. It had been so brief but so wonderful. He had woken up so fast that he shoved her off the couch.

_Oh my fucking God! Mob! I'm so sorry!_

He had gone to the bathroom and thrown up. He wouldn't look at her for the rest of the day. She looked at him, though. Mob and the other Shigeko did. They watched him closely. He wanted them as much as they wanted him. It wasn't just sex. They wanted to be one with him in all ways. Emotionally and physically. They wanted to spend their life with him.

They needed more than sex to nourish their relationship, but they did need sex.

They needed love, caring, understanding, devotion, and acceptance.

He saturated their soul with too much of one and not of the other.

They needed both, the physical and the emotional. They wanted to free themselves with on, on him, him within them. There was no need not to act on the way they felt. All of their drams, Mob's and Shigeko's and Reigen's could become reality.

The client left. Mob used her powers to lock the door.

"The knots in that guy's back…Mob, you wouldn't believe the knots in that guy's back. It was like trying to iron out tennis balls with my hands. Good posture Mob, always remember or you'll end up in his place." Said Reigen. Mob was staring at him, but that wasn't anything new.

"I wouldn't mind being in his place, Master." Said Mob holding eye contact with him. Usually there would be a war raging within her. Mob would tell Shigeko to hold back, to not make waves, to not risk what they had with Master Reigen. Well, today Mob and Shigeko were in agreement about something for once in their life.

"You want a backrub?" asked Reigen dryly. Mob could be so transparent sometimes. He knew the looks she gave him. He knew where her eyes lingered. He wasn't naïve. Mob was human the same as anyone else and she wanted the same things that every other human wanted. She just wanted them with him for some reason.

He knew the reason.

Because he saved her life. He saved her from becoming the worst sort of person, from becoming a monster. He saved her from Claw twice. Once from the 7th division and again from their leader. Well, he had tried to save her. He had pulled a gun on another human being to save her. In the end she saved him.

She saved him in every way a person could be saved. She saved him from becoming nothing. From becoming just another nobody. He had always wanted to be somebody and he was somebody in her eyes. He knew the sort of man he was in her eyes. He knew who he was and he knew who she wanted him to be. What she wanted him to be.

He knew what she wanted and he wanted to give it to her.

He wanted to take her in his arms, to kiss her, to hold her, to never let her go. To wake up next to her each morning. To fall asleep next to her each and every night. To bring her to the peak of ecstasy every night. To make her cry out his name until her voice was nothing more than a hoarse whisper. To kiss her mouth, her breasts, lower until her thighs were wrapped around his head and he could taste every last part of her. To have her under him, to make her feel what he assumed nobody had ever made her feel before.

She was fifteen. He couldn't want this with someone her age. That would have been wrong.

He couldn't have this with her, not yet. She was too young. How could he take advantage of her like that? When she was older, when she was a grown woman, then he would tell her how he felt. Not now, though. He didn't' care what the age of consent was, he couldn't take advantage of her like that.

"I want to tell you something." Said Mob. She got up and walked over to his desk. He made no move to get up.

"Mob, don't." said Reigen. She couldn't confess this to him. She couldn't just come out and say this to him. Then they would finally have to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Maybe the elephant just wanted to be left alone?

"Master, you don't even know what I'm going to say." Said Mob. He probably assumed that she had something stupid to say, something childish. Well she didn't. She was sure. She was more sure of this than she had been of anything in her life.

"Mob, I know exactly what you're going to say." Said Reigen. She was going to say something stupid like 'I love you' and then he would have to either say it back or reject her. Both were terrible. If he rejected her then he lost her. If he said yes then he was taking advantage of her. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

"No you don't. Just let me say it, Master." Said Mob. He was always talking to her like she was a child. She was not a child anymore.

"Fine, but when you say it don't call me Master." Said Reigen. That would have just been too much. If she was going to confess then he did not need to be reminded of his relationship to her.

"What should I call you, then?" asked Mob. She had never been granted his given name or his family name. She had only been granted his title. Master.

"Just Reigen." Said Reigen. He wanted so badly to grant her his first name but he knew that would be a bad idea. He didn't need to pour water onto this grease fire.

"But you have no idea what I'm going to say." Said Mob. He couldn't have known.

"I think I have a pretty good idea." Said Reigen. He knew that this would be something along the lines of a love confession. She'd confess and then probably come onto her because he knows that as a fifteen year old she's stuck in a near constant state of physical desire.

"I love you." Said Mob quickly. She said it in one breath. She just needed to get it out.

"I knew that you were going to say that." Said Reigen. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. He had been wanting to hear her say those words, just not now. He wanted to say these words to her back, but not now.

"I love you, Reigen." Said Mob again. She needed him to say something, to say either yes or no. She needed him to understand. Why couldn't he understand?

"Mob, stop-" said Reigen. He prepared a spiel for her about how this was too soon, too much, and she needed to stop before she dig herself in any deeper. Before she dug them in any deeper.

"I love you Reigen Arataka and I know you love me too!" said Mob. He loved her too, he must have. She couldn't have been so clueless in those moments they shared together.

"Fine." Said Reigen. He gave up. Fine. She knew how he felt.

"What does that mean?" asked Mob. Fine could mean literally anything in that moment and she was still pretty bad at getting a clue anyway.

"It means that I acknowledge what you said." Said Reigen. She knew that truth. Fine. He could accept the fact that she knew. That didn't change what he had to say.

"But do you love me back?" asked Mob. Did he or didn't he? She needed to know. She would die if she didn't know.

"Mob, listen-" said Reigen. She needed to know that this wouldn't work between them. It wouldn't work until she was older. Old enough for the gap between them to not be a chasm.

"It's a yes or no question." Said Mob. She only needed one word from him. That was all she was asking. He dealt in words, they were his trade. A kind word here or there and he could have anyone eating out of the palm of his hand.

"No it's not, Mob. It's a big question." Said Reigen. This was the biggest thing that anyone had ever said to him. Nobody had ever said this to him before but why, oh God why, did it have to be Mob? Why couldn't she have just waited?

"How? Either you love me or you don't." said Mob. Her heart hurt, now, too. Was it breaking? Was this what heartbreak felt like?

"Mob…Shigeko…there is more than one kind of love." Said Reigen. He was going to tell her that he loved her like a good friend, it would have been a half truth, not a lie. He had promised never to lie to her again.

"I love you romantically and I want us to be a couple." Said Mob. There. Now there could be no mistaking what she wanted. She thought that this would reassure him but instead it seemed to make everything worse.

"Oh God…." Said Reigen. Air. He needed air. This was too much, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't get up, though, because Mob was right there and then he'd have to walk right by her and he didn't trust himself not to pull her into his arms and take it all back.

"Yes or no, that's all I need." said Mob holding back tears.

"When did you get so bossy? So forward?" asked Reigen. This had been a long time coming. She wasn't the same person as before. She had gotten stronger, more assertive, more sure of herself. Almost dying twice and then whatever had happened to her when she fought Mogami had done that to her. His fault. He had done that to her. Didn't she see that he was bad for her?

"The other Shigeko and I agree that this is the right thing to do. She's influencing me right now. She's not as nice as I am." Said Mob. That was why she was being so pushy, because the other Shigeko was pushing her to be pushy.

"Yeah, I can see that…." Said Reigen. He knew that other part of Mob, the part she called the other Shigeko. He knew that was the part of her that dealt with feelings, strong ones, and desires. That was the part of her that was incapable of rational thought.

"Why won't you answer the question?" asked Mob. He was deflecting. Words were his power and she wouldn't let him deflect and deflect until she forgot what she had even set out to do. If she could face down Claw then she could face down this conversation.

"Because I need a minute." Said Reigen. This was too fast. He needed a minute to breath, to think, to get himself sorted out.

"Why?" asked Mob. It was a simple question, either yes or no. When Teru had asked her to be his girlfriend she had given him a no immediately because she didn't have those feelings for him. Master Reigen obviously had those feelings for her so why didn't he just say yes?

"Because I'm fucked either way!" said Reigen. How willfully blind could she be? She was fifteen! He couldn't be with her no matter how much he wanted to.

"How? Why are you being like this? If you don't feel the same way-" said Mob. How could she have misread the atmosphere so badly? How could she have made such an idiot out of herself?

"I do. I feel the same way." Said Reigen. For a moment it felt like time stopped for both of them. That moment was broken when Mob leaned over and kissed him as hard as she could. She held it for a moment. He kissed her back, too, briefly. Too briefly. He leaned back, away from her.

"What's wrong? You feel the same way! If you feel the same then what's wrong?!" asked Mob, her voice cracking at the end. She felt like he was pulling her inside out with a rusty fork. She didn't know that he was capable of making her feel this way.

"Mob…listen…this is wrong." Said Reigen trying to stay calm. He wanted this as badly as she did but he knew that it was his responsibility to put the breaks on this before they went careening off a cliff.

"Why? How can it be wrong if we both feel the same way?!" said Mob. Her hair was acting up. The other Shigeko was lashing out. Maybe she herself was lashing out. This hurt. This hurt so much…how could anything hurt this much!?

"Because I'm twenty nine years old and you're fifteen!" said Reigen standing at his full height. The desk between them shook.

"It's not illegal." Said Mob. She had googled and the age of consent in Seasoning City was fourteen. She was fifteen. There was nothing illegal about this.

"It's immoral." Said Reigen. Society didn't think highly of men pushing thirty who slept with teenage girls still in middle school.

"To who?" asked Mob. Who's business was this? Who was arrogant enough to think that they could tell others who to love and how to love?

"To me." Said Reigen. He couldn't' be with her like that. He couldn't take advantage of her like that. This was Mob.

"So you want us both to live in misery?" asked Mob. That was what it would be. She had been without him thrice in her lifetime and those had been the worst times in her life. There was the time before she met him where she had to control her powers on her own, when her parents looked at her like she was a monster. The next time had been the six months she had spent being tortured in Mogami's mind world. She had been without him, left alone to all the tortures that Mogami could conceive. It wasn't Dimple that pulled her away from the edge but him. It had always been him. The third time had been that awful two weeks when they had gone their separate ways.

"Don't be so dramatic." Said Reigen balling his hands into fists. He knew full well that he would be miserable without her but she didn't need to go off and say it like that.

"I'm miserable without you. I was miserable when we went our separate ways and so were you." Said Mob. That had been the worst two weeks of her life. She thought that she wanted some space from him. He had said terrible things to her, things that he couldn't take back or talk his way out of. She had been so angry in the moment but after watching him rise and fall she realized that she did truly love him and no matter what happened she would be there for him.

"That was the, this is now. Mob, if we….Mob you're too young." Said Reigen. Someone had to be the adult there and obviously it had to be the actual adult.

"It's not against the law." Said Mob. What else was he worried about? How could it be wrong if they both felt the same? The law certainly didn't see anything wrong with it.

"I don't care. I won't take advantage of you like this." Said Reigen. Who cared about the law? The only thing that mattered was the court of public opinion and the court of public opinion would see him hanged for loving a fifteen year old girl.

"How is it taking advantage of me if I want it? If we both want this?" asked Mob. She was asking him to be with her. He wasn't the one doing the asking.

"Because I'm an adult and you're a child." Said Reigen. She needed to understand this, to understand why neither of them could get what they wanted.

"Look at me?! Do I look like a child to you?!" said Mob grabbing at her clothes. She may not have had a big bouncy chest or hips that were twice as wide as her waist but she was not a little girl anymore.

"You'll always be a child to me, Mob." Said Reigen. No. She didn't look like a child. She didn't look like a grown woman, either, standing there in her T-shirt with the kittens on it and her pink skirt. She looked fifteen and he hated himself for wanting her.

"Stop…don't say that to me…" said Mob. She wasn't the same eleven year old that had come through his door all those years ago. She had fought for him. She had put her life on the line for him. Did he think that was nothing?

"It doesn't matter what I want. It doesn't matter how badly I want to be with you. We can't Mob, not yet." Said Reigen

"Why? Who are we hurting?" asked Mob. Who could they hurt by being in love? What could be bad about love?

"You. I would be hurting you." Said Reigen. Couldn't she see that? Couldn't she see that she was too young, that she still had so much of her life to live? That if she had a twenty nine year old boyfriend everyone would think that she was weird. No, they'd think he was a weirdo and that he was taking advantage of her.

"I'm hurting right now!" said Mob. Her stomach felt like it was full of concrete. Her lungs felt like they were full of powdered glass. She wanted to lay down and die. How could he talk to her like this? How could he act like this?

"Mob-" said Reigen reaching a hand out to her. He pulled back when he felt a the energy around her shocking him like static electricity.

"I'm hurting right now and I don't have to be!" said Mob. She stomped her foot and the entire building shook around them.

"I know you're hurting…" said Reigen trying to stay calm. She was shaking, now. Her face was red. He could see the tears collecting in her eyes.

"How? How could you know how it feels?" asked Mob. Nobody had ever felt a pain like this one. This was worse than all the pain she had felt when she defeated Claw the last time. This was worse than absorbing the president's final light. It felt like she was going to die.

"Because I'm hurting right now, too." Said Reigen, his voice breaking. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. This was the hardest thing he had ever had to do.

"If we're both hurting then why can't we be together? I want you, you want me, and the law….it's not breaking any laws. It's simple. Just say yes. Just say that you'll be with me." Said Mob. Tears were falling freely from her eyes. She could see the little raindrops she was making on the new floor. The office had just been rebuilt and her tears were going to warp the brand new hardwood floors.

"When you're an adult…Mob when you're an adult…" said Reigen. He walked over and held her. Hurting. She was hurting. He never wanted to hold her. She still felt so small in his arms. She was so small and she needed him and he needed to be there to comfort her.

"But I want to be with you now." Said Mob as she buried her face in his button down. He smelled like sweat and incense.

"Shh, I know you do. I know. I want…I want this too….but we can't…just wait. Just wait until it's not weird…" said Reigen as she cried into his shirt. He hated to do this to her but he had to, for both of their own good.

"You don't. You're just telling me things to make me happy." Said Mob. He was doing it again. Like when she first met him and he pretended to have powers. She had forgiven him for that long ago. He had promised to never lie to her again. He made a promise.

"I'm telling you the truth, Mob. I love you…I love you so fucking much…but you're too young." Said Reigen. Mob broke apart from him.

"Fine." Said Mob wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. If he was going to be like that then fine. She wasn't a child anymore. She could handle this.

"Mob, what do you mean by fine?" asked Reigen. When a woman said something was fine then it most certainly was not fine. That went double for Mob. Mob never lied to him.

"I mean that I acknowledge what you said." Said Mob. Fine, if that was how he was going to be then it was fine. She took her feelings and stuffed them down. She needed to go outside, to get away before she made a bigger fool out of herself.

"Mob…Mob please talk to me." Said Reigen. Maybe he should have just said yes. Maybe he should have just said yes consequences be damned.

"Master, I'm sorry. I just…I have to go…I have to go now…" said Mob. She had made a complete and total idiot out of herself. She needed to go home or just out of this room.

"That's…that's a good idea. We'll just take the night to…get sorted…and then it'll be back to normal tomorrow. Ok? Mob, do you understand?" asked Reigen. He hadn't responded to that well. They both needed to sleep on this. They'd be back to normal in the morning. When she was an adult they could revisit this. Mob was mature and patient. After a good night's sleep she'd understand.

"…yes…I understand…" said Mob. She turned away from him and walked out the door. She waited until the door was closed behind her before she let herself cry. She walked down the stairs but couldn't make it past the outer door before she just couldn't go on. She sat down and let herself cry.

How could she have been so very stupid?

How could she have thought that he would ever love her?

How could she have ever thought that anyone could ever love her?

She drew her knees up to her chest and rested her head on her knees. She stayed like this for she didn't have any idea how long. She stayed like that until she felt what was left of the sun disappear suddenly. She lifted her head. There was an umbrella above her.

"Master Kageyama? What's wrong?" Oh. Serizawa.

"Nothing. Everything. Why are you here?" asked Mob. She knew that he had gone home a while ago. Why was he back?

"I was lonely and wanted to see if you two were still here. I thought that we could all get ramen. Master Kageyama, what's happening? Are we under attack again?" asked Serizawa. He had never seen her cry before, even when she had taken on the president's final light she hadn't cried. It must have been bad if she was this upset.

"Ramen. I would love to get ramen with you." Said Mob. She stood up quickly. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to be alone with herself and this awful feeling. Serizawa was a nice person. He'd make her feel better.

"But what about Master Reigen?" asked Serizawa. He wasn't good at this at all. She had been crying before but now she just seemed really hungry. They weren't under attack, if they were then she would have said so. He had no idea what he was supposed to do in this situation.

"I…I want to go and get ramen with you right now." Said Mob. She didn't want to go back up there to the scene of her humiliation and rejection. She'd come back tomorrow, or the next day, but she needed to get away right now.

"Sure! I'll pay, you seem sad. Do you want to talk about it?" asked Serizawa. Mob shook her head so fast her hair hit her in the face.

"No. I don't. I really don't." said Mob simply. They walked off towards the usual ramen place. Mob didn't look back. She couldn't look back. If she did she knew that her heart would break even worse than it already was.

She was stupid to think that anyone, let alone Master Reigen, could ever love her.


	2. Picking up the Pieces of a Broken Heart

"Tell me something to make me feel better." Said Mob as they ate. This had been a bad idea. This was where she had gone with Master Reigen. This whole place felt like him. Like them. Too many good memories. They just made the bad memories even worse.

"Uh…today I made conversation with someone on the train platform. We talked about how nice the weather's been lately." Said Serizawa. He didn't know what was with her. Her eyes were still red. Her face was kind of red, too. It made her look like she had a cold. Maybe she was sick. He wouldn't ask her, though. He knew that girls were very sensitive about the way they looked. Not that he had much experience with girls. He had locked himself in his room for twelve years and the only girl around had been his mother. After that he had stayed by the president's side almost constantly and the only people he interacted with, and barely at that, were the ultimate five, and there weren't any girls in the ultimate five.

"I'm happy for you, Serizawa. I know how hard that is for you." Said Mob as she sniffled. At least things were looking up for him. She looked down at her ramen. She wasn't hungry. She had to eat though, Serizawa had bought this for her. He was nice like that, like Master Reigen. No, nicer, because he hadn't taken her heart and stomped on it until it was a flat fleshy pancake laying in the sun for the crows to eat.

"It was so hard. I had to hide under my umbrella but I made it through." Said Serizawa. Was something wrong with her food? She was just making faces at it. He thought she liked ramen. Maybe she changed her mind. He wanted to make her happy. When she was happy she smiled. Never a big smile but enough for him. Her eyes lit up, too, before she smiled. Her eyes seemed blank, now, but more like a sad blank.

"It's hard to tell people things sometimes…." Said Mob softly. She took a bite of her ramen. It had no taste. The food turned to ashes in her mouth, literally. The other her was mad, too. Mad and sad. This was not a good feeling. They had to feel better. Master Reigen could usually make them feel better but he was the reason they felt like garbage. Serizawa was there, now, though. Maybe he could make them feel better. He had never been anything but nice to them, to her.

"For you, too?" asked Serizawa. He couldn't imagine Master Kageyama having trouble with anything. She was so powerful and wise. She was the one who had shown him a better path in life. She was very together, not like him. She always knew just what to say or do. She didn't talk that often but when she did it was always the right thing. Sometimes she phrased things awkwardly but she was very wise.

"…yeah… for me too." Said Mob as she ate robotically. It tasted of nothing. No like how plain rice tasted of nothing but literally like she was eating air. Well, she was, partially. The other her was turning their food into a sort of baby food as they chewed. Just as something to do so they didn't end up breaking something.

"What do you do? To make it easier I mean." Asked Serizawa. Maybe in talking to her then she would tell him what was wrong. Or maybe it was just none of his business. It might have just been none of his business and he was prying and being a bad friend. He didn't want to be a bad friend to her, to put what they had at risk. He only had two friends, really, which was much more than he had before.

"I make an idiot out of myself." Said Mob. She should never have confessed to him. He had let her down gently. Wait until she was an adult? Why? So he could say no again? She wasn't stupid, she knew what a no sounded like when she heard it. He should have just left it at no. Why did he have to go and lie to her again like that? Wait until she was older…why? What would change beside the numbers on the calendar?

"You do? I can't imagine you ever making an idiot out of yourself, Master Kageyama." Said Serizawa. She was always so calm, to together. Even when they had met she hadn't looked afraid for one second. She told him to run away and then she handled it. She was so strong. He could feel her eyes on hims. She looked over at him and stared, something in her eyes that he couldn't read.

"Do you mean that?" asked Mob. She stared at him. He was a good friend. He was always so nice to her. He wouldn't lie to her, he wouldn't ever make her feel the way she was feeling right then.

"Of course! I think very highly of you, Master Kageyama." Said Serizawa. She had saved him in every way that a person could be saved. He owed her his life. Not only had she saved him but she understood him. She understood what it was like to have the kind of power that he did. To live in a chaotic world that did nothing to help you keep it together. He would keep it together, though, for her. If she could do it then he could too. After all, she held more power within herself than he ever would.

"…thank you…I think highly of you, too, Serizawa." said Mob. He was a good person. He had changed for her. He had gone against the person who he thought had saved him in the same way that Master Reigen had saved her. He had changed for her, for **her.** She had changed him, made him into a better person, just like…

"You do, Master Kageyama?" asked Serizawa. How could someone like her see anything in someone like him? Someone as strong as her, as perfect, as together? She was more of an adult than he was in a lot of ways. She knew exactly who she was and who she wanted to be. She had been out there in the world with her powers when he had hidden himself away. How could she think so highly of him? She was so good and he was nothing like her.

"I do, I really do. You don't have to call me Master. You can call me by my name." said Mob. She didn't want to be called Master. She didn't want to be anyone's master. She just wanted to be herself. She wanted to be…Mob.

"Oh no, that's much too familiar." Said Serizawa. He knew that was a social rule, you couldn't just call the people above you by their given names. He hadn't been called by his given name in so long it sounded foreign to his ears.

"I don't mind. I want…I want you to call me by my name." said Mob. Mob. Shigeko. Anything but Master Kageyama. She didn't want to hear the word 'master' anymore. She didn't want to think about Master Reigen and how incredibly, unbelievably, idiotically, stupid she had been.

"Are you sure?" asked Serizawa. There were so many rules and even when it seemed like he wasn't breaking one he could be breaking one. He didn't want to break any with her. He didn't want to do anything that could jeopardize what he had with her.

"I asked you to, didn't I?" said Mob with a slight tone. She wasn't a child. If she said that she wanted to be called by her name then she wanted to be called by her name. She didn't need Serizawa to see her as a child too. She wasn't little anymore. She was **not** a child.

"Oh, right. I will then…Shigeko. Or do you prefer Mob?" asked Serizawa. This was big. He hadn't called anyone by their given name since he was in elementary school. No, wait, he had called people by their family names then too. She would be the first person that he ever called by their given name.

"You can call me Mob if you want, but right now I want to be called Shigeko." Said Mob. Mob was what Master called her. She wasn't up to being called Mob right then. She wasn't up to being Mob right then. She could so easily let herself slip away. Shigeko could take control. It would just be so easy.

"Ok…Shigeko." Said Serizawa. He tested her name out. Shee-jay-kow. Wow. They were even better friends than he had thought. Was he supposed to tell her that she could call him by his given name now? He had never asked anyone to, and it sounded weird. He liked Serizawa. Maybe he should leave it at that.

"Almost nobody calls me that, you know." Said Mob. She didn't much care for it, the other her always thought that she was being addressed when people called her Shigeko. She didn't feel like being Mob then, though. Maybe she should just relinquish control to the other her. No. The world was made out of paper and the other her would rip it apart without even realizing it.

"Shigeko? Why, it's a nice name. I like it, it sounds pretty." Said Serizawa. What did it mean? Nurturing child. She was very nurturing, wasn't she? She was always thinking of others.

"You really think so?" said Mob. She didn't think one way or another about her name, but now she kind of did. She valued the opinions of her friends. Serizawa was a good friend, very nice, very honest. He had never lied to her, not even once.

"I do. It means nurturing child, doesn't it? That's what you are so it fits." Said Serizawa. She wasn't a child, though, not really. When he thought of a child he thought of a small and helpless little person. She was older than a child but younger than a proper adult. She acted like an adult, though, sometimes. More than he did a lot of the time, anyway.

"I'm not a child." Said Mob, the teacup next to her cracking. She was not a child and hadn't been for years. Chronologically yes, she was young, but she didn't feel like a child anymore. She knew that she was capable. She knew that when it came down to it she would do whatever she needed to do up to and including laying her life down for the people she cared about. A child wouldn't do that. Who cared about chronology? She was not a child and she knew this to be true.

"Oh no! I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that you're a very nurturing person. You're always thinking of others. I like that about you." Said Serizawa. Great. He had gone and said the wrong thing and offended her. She was looking at him, now. He couldn't read her face or her eyes.

"You don't think I'm a child?" asked Mob after a moment. Serizawa shook his head. She was young but not a child. She didn't act or look like a child. Not that he spent much time looking at her. He tried not to look at her, if anything. She was his superior and friend. Besides, from what he could gather girls didn't like that. Not that he knew much about girls but he didn't want to offend them.

"No, I don't think that you're a child at all." Said Serizawa. Mob smiled. She didn't smile big, she never did naturally, but she smiled. Someone saw her for what she was, not what she had been. She was not a child anymore and finally someone acknowledged it.

"Thank you for taking me here. I feel much better." Said Mob. She ate a little more quickly now. The food still had no taste but she wasn't motion sick anymore. She felt better, now, much better. He had, in fact, told her something to make her feel better.

"Why were you upset….Shigeko?" asked Serizawa. Since they were such good friends not then maybe this wasn't prying but instead friendly concern. He didn't like to see her sad, it didn't suit her. Happiness, the face she was making right then and there, suited her. She looked nice, then. Happy.

"I just messed up, that's all. Nothing you need to worry about, but thank you." Said Mob. He was really nice. He was always so nice to her, even when they first met. He had been pulling his punches when they fought. So had she. He hadn't wanted to hurt her then and he wouldn't hurt her now. He made her feel better, which was more than some people did.

"Alright, if you say so. I couldn't really see you messing up, though." Said Serizawa. Maybe this was one of those times when she didn't want to talk about it. Sometimes people didn't want to talk about things. They ate in silence for a moment. Her eyes weren't red and puffy anymore, that was good. She looked better. Maybe he had helped her even though he had no idea how he had helped her.

"I mess up all the time." Said Mob. She messed up in class, she messed up socially, and she messed up with Master Reigen. Maybe she was just destined to mess up. Maybe that was just what her existence was meant to be. Mob, the person who messed everything up.

"I've never seen you mess up. I look up to you, actually." Said Serizawa. She was looking at him. Her eyes were a nice shade of brown. They looked happy, too. She was giving him that look again, though, that unreadable look.

"You do? Why?" asked Mob. Nobody had ever looked up to her before, not even her little brother. She had always been the person who looked up to others.

"Because you're amazing. Well, the things you do, I mean! The way you always know what to say and what to do and you just have everything together, you know?" said Serizawa. Mob reached over and put her hand over his. It felt like a nice thing to do. His hand was much bigger than hers. Soft, though. His nails were bitten down to nothing, though. Hers were kind of getting kind of long.

"Thank you, Serizawa. I think that you're amazing too. You went from locking yourself away from the world to trying to take over the world to helping to save the world." Said Mob. Serizawa held his umbrella in his other hand. This was…wow. He didn't make a lot of physical contact with others, especially not female others. Her hand was smaller than his. It was soft, too, and warm. Warmer than he thought that it would be even though he knew that human beings were warm blooded. The only person to touch him regularly had been the president and he had been cold to the touch, like toughing a statue.

"I never really wanted to take over the world. I was just following the president, that was all." Said Serizawa. How could he have been so stupid? He just followed the president because he had showed him what he thought was kindness and friendship. She had been the one to show him what true kindness and true friendship were. She, Shigeko, Mob.

"Still, you helped me save it. Thank you for that." Said Mob, her hand still over his. This was nice. He wasn't pushing her away and telling her that she was just a kid. Not like some people. Serizawa was nice like that, and he understood her in a lot of ways. He knew what it was like, what a lot of stuff was like.

"You saved me. Thank you for that." Said Serizawa. He let her keep her hand there. He had no idea what she meant by it but he decided not to read too much into it. Even though it felt like his insides were trying to become his outsides. Even though he had never made this kind of physical contact with a girl who hadn't been his mother. Even though she was so nice to him, so nice to everyone. Even though she had always been there for him when he needed her. Even though she would always be there. Even though-

"Serizawa? Are you ok?" asked Mob as Serizawa charged the air with his energy. Her explosions were sudden. They happened when she couldn't hold anything back anymore and the other Shigeko flooded out of their mindscape like a broken damn. Serizawa's had a preamble to them. The cracking energy was like when the sea got really calm and they sounded the tsunami alarm.

"Fine! I'm fine. Are you done?" asked Serizawa as he pulled his hand away from hers. He couldn't think about her like that. He actively tried not to think about her like that. This was not the person he should be thinking those thoughts about.

"Yes, I'm not hungry anymore." Said Mob. She had eaten most of her food. It was mostly just stray noodles and cold broth left. Usually she passed her bowl to Master Reigen and he would drink the last of it himself but Master Reigen wasn't with her right then and there. He was probably off with someone else, someone he would rather be with, someone who he thought was grown up enough for him. Someone who he didn't see as a child. But she wasn't a child, not really. If Master Reigen only saw her as he did when they met then fine. She had someone right there who saw her not as a child but as an equal, an adult.

They finished and walked out the door, stopping in front of the ramen place. Serizawa made no move to leave. He didn't know if they were still hanging out or not. Master Reigen usually told him when they were done hanging out. Serizawa didn't really want to be done hanging out with her.

"I don't want to go home yet." Said Mob. She didn't want to go back to her house and brush off the million and one questions that Ritsu would have for her and then she'd be up all night staring up at her ceiling and thinking of how she had made a complete and total moron out of herself. No. she didn't want to go home just yet.

"Do you want to keep on hanging out?" asked Serizawa before he lost his nerve. He didn't want to stop hanging out with her. This felt nice. Her presence, her warmth, her occasional smiles. She made him feel warm, too, and kind of nervous but a good sort of nervous. He tried to squish that feeling down. He didn't know precisely what it was but he figured that it was something that he should not have been feeling towards her.

"Yes. I would like that a lot, Serizawa." Said Mob. She didn't care what they did. Anything but going home with nothing to do but look at the ceiling and going over the many, many, many mistakes that she had made.

"What do we…do?" asked Serizawa. He had never hung out with someone for this long. He knew what he would do if he were alone but he had no idea if she liked the things that she liked. She was looking at him again, expression unreadable.

"What do you want to do?" asked Mob. She didn't want to do anything in particular, just go home. She would even have gone to the park to watch the grass grow if he had suggested it.

"If I were by myself I'd stop by the model store on my way home but I don't know if that's something that you would like." Said Serizawa. There weren't really girls at the plastic model store and he had no idea if she even liked building them.

"Ok. That sounds nice." Said Mob. She had never been to the model store but she knew, vaguely, where it was. She didn't really build things like that because she, well the other her, had a tendency to break things. Still, it beat going home. She had never been to Serizawa's house, either, so that would be a nice too.

"Really?" asked Serizawa. Did she mean that she wanted to come home with him, too? He had never had anyone over before. Was it too messy? Would she mind?

"Yes. I wouldn't say yes if I didn't mean it. I always mean what I say." Said Mob. Serizawa wasn't believing her either, just like Master Reigen didn't believe her.

"Ok. Well, it's this way." Said Serizawa as he watched a dark look pass into her eyes. He had said the wrong thing again. Damn. Well, he could just…do better in the future. What had Master Reigen said? Mistakes were just future opportunities or something like that. He said a lot of wise things, it was hard to keep it all straight.

They walked down the street together, some distance between them. Serizawa risked a glance at her every so often. She was staring straight forward. He let himself see her aura. Still the same two colors, bubblegum pink and electric blue. More blue than pink, though. He wondered what that meant. Usually it was an even split. He didn't ask, though, because that might have been rude.

Mob felt his aura pass over hers. It was nice on a metaphysical level. It reminded the other her that he was there. The other her perceived the world differently. Serizawa's presence made them both feel good. Safer. Like Master Reigen's presence used to. But Master Reigen wasn't there, now was he? No. He had rejected them. He had pushed them away and rejected them. Even after they kissed…Mob walked a little closer to Serizawa. He made her feel less alone.

Serizawa wasn't sure what he was supposed to do right then. She had gotten closer to him. Was he hogging the sidewalk? Did she want him to move? No, there was plenty of room on her side of the sidewalk. She had wanted to be near him. Oh. Why? He had no idea what he was supposed to now. Keep walking? He decided to keep walking. He couldn't just stop in the middle of the sidewalk and ask her what that was about. Wait, he had seen her and Master Reigen do this. He put an arm around her, that was what Master Reigen always did when they were that close.

Mob was staring at the world ahead of her when she felt Serizawa put an arm around her. Oh. Why? Did he…want to? She had been walking kind of close to him. Did she want him to? She liked it when Master Reigen put an arm around her when they went places. Did she like it when Serizawa did it, too? Whatever. He wanted to and he was nice so she'd let him. She was happy that someone wanted to be this close to her.

Serizawa wasn't sure how he felt about this. On the one hand this was no trouble at all. On the other hand he had never been this close to her before, or any girl for that matter. He held onto his umbrella with his other hand. He had nothing to be nervous about. She had asked him to and she hadn't pushed him away so he must have been doing something right. Right? She didn't seem upset at all. She was small, smaller than him. He was conscious of this fact and he didn't know why. She was smaller than him and she was warm, this was what his mind chose to focus on. He could feel her hair under his arm. It was long, longer than his had ever been. It looked soft. She looked soft, like a plushy maybe. No, not a plushy. Maybe like a doll? She did look kind of like a doll sometimes. She could sit very stilly and go without blinking for long periods of time, he noticed. She looked kind of like a doll, then. Her hair was perfect, nothing out of place. Her skin was pale and smooth looking, not a single scar or blemish. She was pretty, he decided. She was very pretty.

Mob was conscious of much bigger he was than her. He was bigger than Master Reigen, too. He smelled different. Master Reigen smelled like cigarettes and aftershave and incense. Serizawa smelled like soap and plastic and aftershave but a different kind, not as strong. He smelled nice too, she decided. Even the plastic smell was nice. If she closed her eyes she could imagine it was Master Reigen, though she didn't do that for very long because it made her heart hurt. She walked a little closer to Serizawa. He wasn't rejecting her and he wouldn't. Not that she was doing anything that could end in a rejection.

"This is it!" said Serizawa as she got even closer to him. His stomach was doing flips, his hand was so sweaty that his umbrella could have slipped from his grip at any time. She had never gotten that close to him before. She had never given any indication that she wanted to be that close to him before…right? Was she still upset? Or did she just like being close to him.

Not that he had ever had anybody who wanted to be that close to him. Not that it had been **possible** for anyone to be that close to him.

"Whoa…" said Mob as she took it all in. There were models for everything! Including…was that unit one! A lot of unit ones! Units zero and two! This. Was. Amazing. She clasped her hands together. She was getting too worked up. Still, though, this was amazing. She didn't have a lot of EVA merchandise even though she loved it. She didn't have a lot of stuff in general. She tended to break things on accident.

"You really like it in here?" asked Serizawa. Her eyes looked so happy. She was staring at the shelf with the Evangelion models. He liked that show enough, it was cool. She seemed captivated, though. Hey, he had learned something about her.

"Yes. Yes I do, Serizawa." Sais Mob as she walked to the shelf. She let herself touch the model of unit one. Shinji's unit. He was like her in a lot of ways. He had something that he had to do, pilot an EVA, even though he didn't want to. He did it because piloting the EVA was what he was good at and it gave him purpose. He did it because he was told to. Before Master Reigen had told her to come and work for him she had been totally without purpose. She pulled her hand back. No. She had to stop thinking about Master Reigen. She reached over and felt the box for unit two. She had to be more like Asuka. She piloted the EVA because that was what she was good at but nobody made her. She was a pilot because then she could prove herself. That was what Mob needed to do. She needed to be her own person, to prove herself. Then she wouldn't be seen as a child anymore.

"I didn't know that you like Evangelion." Said Serizawa as he watched the emotion play out from behind her eyes. She nodded but didn't look at him.

"I do. Do you?" asked Mob. She liked it because it was the first thing that she had ever seen that made sense. She understood why everyone did what they did and she understood why it ended the way it did. Instrumentality must have been wonderful. No more pain, no more sadness, no more boundaries between people.

"I like it alright. I didn't really get the way the show ended, though." Said Serizawa. In the twelve years spent locked away from the world he had watched A LOT of TV. Evangelion was the one thing he didn't understand. The ending where everyone was just talking to themselves and the animation was either weird or nonexistent was too confusing. The movies really cleared it up, though.

"It ended with everyone reaching instrumentality. All of their boundaries broke apart and they could all finally understand each other. It must have been wonderful." Said Mob. Now she was facing him. She let her aura touch his. It was like touching AT fields, almost. The AT field was the metaphysical part of you, it was like your soul. She had left her vessel before and her aura had gone with her. Was the aura just another part of her, the soul part, and it was just too big to fit into her vessel? What did it mean to touch souls with someone? Was that instrumentality too?

"You think? Everyone looked pretty scared in the last rebuild movie." Said Serizawa. He could feel her aura touching his. It was like a feather light touch, like she was testing him out to see if he was there. He pushed back, a little. It was nice.

"They just weren't used to leaving their vessels and being one with everyone else. I've left me vessel before but I've never been one with someone else. Well, the other me but she doesn't count because we're two halves of the same person. Leaving my vessel was scary the first time but now it doesn't even hurt. I don't leave it that often, though. I don't really need to." Said Mob. It hurt getting used to having no boundaries between her and the rest of the world. After that she got used to it. She had even controlled it well enough that she didn't get ripped apart when she materialized inside of Minori to get Mogami out. Sometimes she wished she had, though, on those nights when she wakes up scared and everything is floating around her.

"I've never left my vessel before and I've always just been myself. I think I might be able to but I'm afraid to try. I've never been one with someone else before, it's just me in here." Said Serizawa. He had never been one with another person in any sense of the word. It had always just been him. Even in his head it had always been him. He knew that she was split in half, though, her consciousness was. That was the duality in her aura. His was one solid color. He was just himself.

"You're lucky, being alone." Said Mob. She had spent her entire life, well almost her entire life, with the other her. She didn't know when the other her came into being but she knew when the other her had first acted. Ritsu forgave her, though, for that time when they were little and she lost control. Serizawa knew what it was like to lose control even if it was only him.

"It gets lonely." Said Serizawa. He had been lonely earlier. He had been so lonely that he had gone back to work to see if anyone was there. Now he wasn't lonely, and it was all thanks to her. She still seemed troubled, though. He wished that he could make her feel better.

"You don't have to be lonely. I'm here with you." Said Mob meaning it in the most literal way possible. She was there and he was there so then neither of them had to be lonely anymore. He reached a shaky hand up and almost put it over her shoulders before putting it quickly at his side where it belonged. He didn't know if she wanted him to touch her. He wanted to make physical contact with her but he knew not to. He was too nervous and too socially inept. If she asked him to, though, then he would. He took a shaky breath and left her to look at the EVA models. He walked to the back of the store to clear his head. He needed to stuff down all of those feelings that she brought up in him, that she had brought up in him since the day they met.

He hadn't wanted to hurt her when they met. He was pretty socially stunted but he knew that one did not fight with girls. He had pulled his punched, so had she. She didn't have to but she did. She didn't even beat him, not really. She had, instead, shown him something better than anything he had ever had before. She had just met him but she cared enough to show him the error of his ways. She had saved him, too, at the end even though he had originally been her enemy. She had saved him and then accepted him as a friend.

That was all he could ever ask for.

If she noticed the way his eyes would linger on her she said nothing. If she noticed the way he would sometimes stutter around her then she said nothing. If he noticed the way he would trip over his words around her then she said nothing. Maybe she didn't notice, maybe she didn't want to make him feel bad. But why was she different now? She had wanted to be near him. She had wanted him to make physical contact with her as they walked. She was here, with him, sharing in his interests. That was just friendship, right?

That was all it could be, right?

He grabbed what he wanted and found her where he left her. He debated getting her something. He wanted to get her something. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to see her smile. She was pretty when she smiled. She was pretty when she didn't. She was pretty whenever.

"Do you want one?" asked Serizawa. Mob shook her head.

"I can't. I'd probably break it on accident." Said Mob. She wouldn't ever get herself something so delicate. She didn't have many toys or trinkets, even when she was a child. She always accidentally broke things with her powers.

"Really? Oh. I'm sorry. I forgot that yours were different from mine." Said Serizawa. His explosions were different. He just sort of exploded everywhere but she grabbed onto things with her powers and they broke. If he looked closely enough he could see the other her, the white the existed in the cracks of her existence, reaching out and grabbing what they could.

"That's alright. Is that what you're going to get?" asked Mob. That was from one of the Gundam shows. It was an ok series. Nothing could ever eclipse EVA though.

"Huh? Oh, yes. I haven't built this one yet." Said Serizawa. This was new-ish. He hadn't had as much time to build with work and all. It would be nice to get back into his old hobbies. Well, as long as he remembered to socialize. He was socializing right now, though, with her.

"I bet it'll look cool when you finish it." Said Mob. The little finished ones that they had at the store looked cool. It was amazing that someone could build something like that all on their own. She could never do such precise work like that.

"They do, when they're finished. I have some like this finished, if you want to see them." Said Serizawa. He still wanted to hang out with her. Did she still want to hang out with him? He was afraid of both answers, the yes and the no. If yes then he'd be nervous because he never had anyone over before. If no then he was equally afraid. It wouldn't be a rejection, right? It would feel like that, sort of.

"I do." Said Mob. She didn't want to go home just then and being with him was nice. He was nice.

He wouldn't reject her.


	3. Heartfelt Actions and Mistakes

"Did you really build all of these?" asked Mob. His apartment was amazing. Every wall had a shelf on it and every shelf was covered in plastic models. She wanted to touch them but she didn't. She didn't want to break anything. She had broken enough today.

"Yes. Most of them were from kits, though, so it wasn't really anything to think about." Said Serizawa. He was in the kitchen part of the apartment. It was all one big room. It was cheaper that way and he wasn't ready to live in different rooms. One was enough. As a consequence of having only one room he had no couch. Just a low table in front of the TV and a bed behind that. He never thought he needed more than that.

He had never had anyone over before.

"These are still really cool. You're amazing, Serizawa." Said Mob. That was Master Reigen's word, amazing. He had been amazing. He was amazing. No. She needed to stop thinking about him. It made her heart twist in her chest like someone was reaching up and trying to squeeze the blood out like it was an overripe piece of fruit.

"Thank you." Said Serizawa. She really thought that they were cool. He hadn't had much to do, back when he was in his room, but build models and play games and watch TV and do internet stuff. She had led a much more fulfilling life and she was almost half his age.

"Do they take a while?" asked Mob. They were so detailed. Even the painting on them. She knew what some of these were from and the painting was totally accurate. Some of these were even painted to look like they had been in battle.

"Some of them, but I have a lot of time on my hands." Said Serizawa. Some of them were from his old room, the ones with the most detail. He put two cups of tea and a teapot on the tiny table. Mob sat down and joined him. He sat on one side, she sat on the other. He passed her a cup.

"This is very good, thank you." Said Mob. The cups didn't match. Hers was from Gundam. His was from Dragonball. She liked it. The ones at her house all matched and were plain white because she tended to break them and mom was sick of replacing nice ones. She put her cup down. She didn't want to break it. It was nice.

"You think so?! Sorry…I just didn't know what you liked so I made white tea. I didn't know you liked white tea, I can make you more if you want." Said Serizawa. She liked the tea, thank the universe! He knew that he wasn't good at making tea and he had never made tea for a guest before. Reigen always had her make the tea. She was good at it. Maybe girls were just better at it, or maybe he just thought that girls were better at it because his mom had been good at making tea. She was happy now, right? She was happy. She must have been. He was making her happy, right? He was being a good host, right?

"Are you alright?" asked Mob. She could feel himself getting worked up but she didn't know what he was getting worked up over. She reached over and put her hand over his. That just seemed to make it worse.

"Fine! I'm fine!" said Serizawa. Her hand was over his. Her hand was over his and he had no idea what he was supposed to do. This was the second time in his life that a girl had put her hand over his.

"Do you want to watch TV?" asked Mob. TV could be helpful. It could help you forget, if only for a little while.

"Sure! Anything in particular?" said Serizawa, grateful for something to do with his hand because right then and there he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Mob watched him. Something was bothering him but she didn't know what. She was grateful that he was so easy to read, at least when he was bothered. He always told the truth, too, and never lied. Not like some people.

"No. I don't care." Said Mob. She just wanted something to stare at, some background noise. Something to make her feel better.

"Well, what do you like?" asked Serizawa. It was guest's choice, right?

"This season or in general?" said Mob. She liked a lot of things but she didn't want to watch anything that she was following. She knew that she couldn't focus. She decided to focus on him. He was anther esper, he took up a lot of space metaphysically. She let her aura settle around his. He took a shaky breath.

"Both." Said Serizawa after a moment. It wasn't that he had never had his aura touched before, but that had always been something akin to glances, like the feeling of having someone standing much too close to you. She had done something different. She wasn't just standing near him, that had been the equivalent of her coming up to him and wrapping her arms around him. She was like a blanket around him, warm. Like a warm breeze, invisible but everywhere.

"I like Evangelion, mostly, but they haven't made a new one in a while. This season I've just been watching all the slice of life stuff. The shoujo slice of life stuff. I like watching people being friends and being happy." Said Mob. She felt herself wrap around him. She had let her aura settle over Master Reigen before but he had no aura so it was just her around him, nothing else. He didn't react. Serizawa relaxed into her, rose to meet her. He ebbed where she flowed. She let them ebb and flow together. This was new. She had let her aura touch other espers before but that had been more like bumping into someone on a crowded train.

"Me too. Well, not that much shoujo." Said Serizawa. He hadn't had anything much to do, in his room. He watched a lot of anime and read a lot of manga. She probably didn't do much of either. She had a whole life to live. What was her life like? She had friends and went to her after school club and had a family that loved her. What was she doing with him, then? She was choosing to spend time with him. Someone was choosing to spend time with him.

"It's for girls, mostly. My brother won't read or watch any of it. He says that it's boring and nothing happens. Plenty happens, people are friends and have fun and fall in love. You like shonen, right?" asked Mob. She wanted that, to have friends and have fun and fall in love. She had friends, and she had fallen in love. Love was hard. Love hurt. It would have hurt less if Master Reigen had just told her that he didn't want to be with her. Why did he go and say all of that stuff just to make her feel better?

"I do like some shoujo but you're right, it's not for me. I haven't missed an issue of weekly shonen since I was twelve, though. I like it when people have friends and fun and fall in love but I like action, too. I don't know, I've read a lot of manga and watched a lot of TV." Said Serizawa. She was there and she wanted to be near him and she wanted to talk to him and this was all so new and so nice and a first. A lot of firsts, for him.

"Because you were locked in your room?" asked Mob. That must have given him a lot time to do stuff. She couldn't imagine it, being locked in a room all day every day. She knew, though, that she could have easily ended up like Serizawa. She had locked herself in her room after the accident with Ritsu but it had been Ritsu who had coaxed her out. Mom and dad couldn't get her out so it was up to her little brother.

"…yeah…"said Serizawa softly. Not much else to do. She was looking at him now. Mob scooted closer to him. Serizawa stiffened but let her lean right onto his side. She was so warm. He wondered what he was supposed to do with her so close. Why? She had been close to him all night.

"Sorry. Sometimes I say the wrong thing. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." Said Mob

"No, it's fine. I feel bad sometimes but I'm getting over it." Said Serizawa

"Is it hard, getting over it?" asked Mob

"Different things are harder to get over, I think, so I guess it depends on what you're trying to get over." Said Serizawa

"…I was dumb. I just need to get over how dumb I was." Said Mob. She had been dumb. She never should have confessed and now she was hurt and rejected. She let herself rest against Serizawa. He was there and he wanted to be near her. Somebody wanted to be near her.

"What did you do? Sometimes I do dumb things but then I remember that it'll pass." Said Serizawa. Master Reigen had taught him that. Everything passes and nobody even remembers when you mess up.

"Nothing. Everything. I don't you. I don't want to talk about it." Said Mob

"Oh. Ok. Talking about things helps though. Not that I want to be pushy or anything!" said Serizawa

"I don't think that you're pushy. Do you think that I'm pushy?" asked Mob

"No, never!" said Serizawa

"Is this ok then?" asked Mob as she shifted more into him.

"…that's fine." Said Serizawa

"Thanks. I just…I just wanted to be near you….or someone…so thank you." Said Mob

"You're welcome. Anytime!" said Serizawa, his voice picking up and the end. He reached his arm around her. Neither of them were watching TV, really. He was glancing at her out of the side of his vision. She was looking at nothing in particular. He wondered what was bothering her. It must have been bad if she didn't want to talk about it at all.

"You're looking at me. Why?" asked Mob. She could feel when she was being looked at, his entire aura shifted. She had been thinking. Serizawa was nice, he wouldn't lie to her, and he wouldn't push her away. He was a good person like that. He could be a good person for her. For them. For her and the other Shigeko.

"I was just worried about you. I've never seen you like this." Said Serizawa. Maybe something awful had happened. Maybe someone died! No, wait, then she probably would have told him. She was his friend, right? Right. She was hanging out with him after all. He never thought he would ever have anyone over, let alone a girl someone, let alone her someone.

"I've never seen me like this, either." Said Mob. It felt like there was a cold lump where her heart used to be. Like it had been replaced with a half melted tub of ice cream. He was warm. He warmed her up. He warmed the other Shigeko up, too. She had been cold, too. Hurt. Curled up and away from everything. She hurt too. They both hurt.

"Is there anything that I can do?" asked Serizawa. It made him sad to see her like that. She wasn't exactly a cheery and chipper person but she had never actually looked sad before, either.

"Don't push me away." Said Mob. She couldn't handle that again. She couldn't handle having someone else reject her and push her away and make her feel like she was **nothing.**

"I'd never do anything like that." Said Serizawa. She still felt sad. He wanted her to just tell him what was bothering her. That way if she told him what it was then he could do more to help her than just hold her.

"Good. I don't think that I could go through that again." Said Mob closing her eyes. She let herself see just their auras. Purple for him, pink and blue for her. More blue than pink. That meant that the other Shigeko was more active. Just because she wasn't moving anything or breaking anything didn't mean that she wasn't active. She was looking out through their eyes. Feeling through their skin. She was all curled up inside of their skin. Mob poked her.

_Don't freak out_

**I won't**

_Seriously, don't freak out around Serizawa_

**We like this**

_We do_

**We could stay like this**

_No we can't_

**We can **

_We can't_

**Why fight?**

_Because we have to go home eventually_

**Then let's enjoy this now**

_Ok_

"Who pushed you? I'll push them right back, if you want." Said Serizawa. Oh, someone had pushed her. That made him angry, actually, that someone would hurt her like that. Even though she had defeated not only the ultimate five but the president himself, even though he knew that she could handle herself, he still felt like he had to protect her. She was smaller than him, more powerful but smaller.

"Not literally. He just…I don't want to talk about it." Said Mob, her eyes still closed. She was mad at Master Reigen but she didn't want Serizawa to push him or anything. Not even if he had lied to her, told her that they would be together later. In three years when she was an adult, like she believed that. What difference would three years make? She loved him now and would have loved him for years. What was she supposed to do? Hold out hope for three years just to hear a no from him? Well she wasn't going to let him lie to her again. He had broken his promise and lied again and it hurt. Well fine then. If he rejected her then she would just…just…she didn't know what she was supposed to do. It just hurt so much.

"Because it hurts?" asked Serizawa. If she was hurt, physically hurt, then he could help her with that. He had a first aid kit and would take her to a hospital if she needed it. No, wait, she said that she hadn't literally been pushed. Then it was emotional hurt. He didn't know what to do for that. Was this enough? He held her a little closer. Her skin was soft but kind of fuzzy, like a peach. He almost never made skin to skin contact with other people. He didn't want to let her go.

"It hurts. It hurts but…but it'll get better. You're here, and you wouldn't push me away." Said Mob. He felt nice. Strong. Warm. There.

"I am. I won't push you away. This is…nice. You're nice." Said Serizawa. He looked down at her. Her eyes were closed tight.

"Serizawa…thank you." Said Mob softy

"You're welcome. Are you tired?" asked Serizawa. Mob nodded. She felt rung out, like a wet dishrag. She didn't want to go home, down. She was kind of happy here, with him. They were in a delicate soap bubble right now and if she left then it would break.

"I'm tired." Said Mob. Serizawa looked up towards his bed. He had just washed his bedding so it was clean. It was comfortable in his opinion.

"You want to lay down?" asked Serizawa. Mob nodded. She stood up and flopped down on his bed. The springs groaned under her weight. She suddenly felt cold. She looked over. Serizawa was sitting on the floor sipping his tea. She brought her knees up to her chest. She didn't want to be alone. If she was alone then she would think about it, how truly alone she was.

**We don't have to be alone**

_What do you mean?_

**There's someone here with us**

_Would that be ok?_

**I don't see why not**

_You never see why not_

**The concept of self denial eludes me**

…_.me too, sometimes_

**Then don't deny us**

"You can be next to me, if you want." Said Mob. The other Shigeko had a point. If they didn't want to be alone then why should they be? They liked Serizawa. He liked them. He wouldn't push them away.

"You want me to come up there?" asked Serizawa. The tea in his hand jumped out of the cup. That was…unexpected…and not just from her. He had never thought that any girl would ask him that. Not that he was reading into it. He meant that in the most literal sense. He had never imagined that any girl would want to lay next to him.

"Yes. I don't want to be alone. Please?" asked Mob. She couldn't handle it if she was rejected again.

"…sure…" said Serizawa. He stood up and sat next to her. She moved more towards the wall and he laid down next to her. There was a centimeter of space between them. He laid stiffly next to her and stared at the ceiling. He had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. She was on her back too. Her eyes were unfocused. The sun was setting, it cast long shadows across the apartment. It would be almost down soon. There was still a small amount of light, the sun's final light. Maybe she could absorb that, too. Maybe she could absorb the entire sun and then it would be dark and then maybe he could cool down because it was suddenly very warm. Her hand was a centimeter from his. He twitched his fingers. He could so easily reach out towards her.

"There's a crack in the ceiling." Said Mob. It looked like the river, sort of, the path it took. It split the ceiling in half. Would it ever recover?

"I never noticed. I guess it was like that when I moved in." said Serizawa. Had he done that? Maybe. Did her celling have cracks in it? Had she ever lost control like he did sometimes, in his sleep?

"If the ceiling caved in would anyone ever find us?" asked Mob. She was near him, on his bed. She had imagined this before, with Master Reigen. She had stayed up and stared at her ceiling, imagining Master Reigen next to her. How he would be warm and soft but also kind of bony because he was a pretty skinny guy. How he would hold her and kiss her and tell her that he loved her. All the other stuff that came after that. He wouldn't, though. He would never be in this position with her. They would never cuddle or kiss or other stuff. They wouldn't because he thought that she was too young. He cared too much what other people thought. That must have been it.

"Probably. This is an apartment building after all." Said Serizawa. Was she worried about that? That he would bring the building down? Or that she would? She shouldn't be afraid. He wouldn't bring the veiling down over them and he wouldn't let her do so either.

"What would they think?" asked Mob. Would the world think that she was a child? That she was too young to know what she wanted? That she needed to be protected from what she wanted even though she knew that it was right?

"Hopefully not that we had anything to do with it." Said Serizawa

"No, I mean about this." Said Mob. She was fifteen, not a child. Master Reigen seemed to think that all that she would ever be was a child. He thought that she was a child and there was no convincing him otherwise. Well she wasn't. She was young but she wasn't too young that she

"This?" asked Serizawa. What was there to think? This was her. There was no way that anyone could take this the wrong way because he was him and she was her and why would she want to ever be with him like that?

"You aren't worried about what people would think?" asked Mob. Master Reigen said that it bothered him how young she was but he was probably just bothered by what other people thought about him. He cared so much what everyone thought. That was why he had pretended to be something that he wasn't, back when they had gone their separate ways. Separate ways. They…they couldn't go their separate ways again. Her heart began to ache.

"No, why would I be?" asked Serizawa. Nobody would think anything about him and her. That would be absurd, as absurd as him thinking that she would ever want…anything…with him. She was her. She was so powerful, so wise, so everything.

"Because I'm here with you." Said Mob simply. Master Reigen said that what was legal was not always right. Well what was right was subjective. She thought that they would be right. He thought that the two of them together would be wrong. What about her and…Serizawa? He was nice.

"I don't follow." Said Serizawa

"You don't think I'm a child?" asked Mob. He was nice, she decided. He was nice and he didn't lie and he didn't treat her like she was a child.

"No, not at all. You're too old to be a child and too powerful." Said Serizawa. Her, a child? Children were small and helpless and little. She had lifted a city into the stratosphere and then put it back together again. She was too old to be a child, too. She was fifteen. That was long past the age when his mother told him that he was old enough to make his own decisions.

"And you want to be here with me?" asked Mob. He wasn't going to push her away. He wasn't going to tell her that she was too young and she had to wait for some arbitrary amount of time. Right?

"Yes, of course I do." Said Serizawa. This was his house. If he felt like it he could have sat back down on the floor. He could have even kicked her out, if he wanted to. Not that he would. He liked this. She was nice, her presence.

"Can I move closer?" asked Mob. There was space between them, a DMZ that she wasn't afraid to cross. No, she wanted to cross. Master Reigen said no and that was fine. He didn't want to be with her and that was fine. She still wanted to be with him and it hurt but…but maybe if she forgot…

"…if you want to." Said Serizawa. Did he want her to? He did. But why did she want to?

"I do." Said Mob. She closed that last centimeter between them. Serizawa was very stiff, she noticed. She rested her head on his chest. His heart was beating really fast, like he had just drank an entire pot of coffee and chased it with a pot of tea. After a moment he wrapped an arm around her.

"You can go to sleep, if you want." Said Serizawa. That must have been it. She was tired and she wanted to sleep with him. Not WITH him! Just next to him! Next to!

"I don't want to sleep." Said Mob. She closed her eyes, though, and let herself listen to his heart beating.

"Oh. You just said that you were tired." Said Serizawa. Her eyes were closed after all. Maybe she was just being her usual hard to read self. He didn't dislike this. This warmth, her, the weight of her on his chest.

"I am but I don't want to go to sleep." Said Mob. This was nice, being near someone. She hardly ever touched people. The only person who really made physical contact with her had been Master Reigen and…this was nice.

"What do you want?" asked Serizawa getting to it. He had no read on this at all. She said she wasn't tired but she closed her eyes. She said that she didn't want to talk about what was bothering her but she still wanted comfort. Maybe girls were just complicated, right? How did it go? Men were from Mars and women were from Venus?

"Serizawa…." Said Mob. What did she want? Who did she want? She wanted…she wanted to be loved. That was all she wanted but the person she loved most in the entire world didn't love her. He said that he did. He said that he did but she would have to wait. He lied. If he truly loved her then he wouldn't wait. If he truly loved her then he would have just been with her. If he loved her then it would be his bed she would have been in. This wasn't his bed, though. This was Serizawa's bed. He wouldn't push her away, he wouldn't reject her. She wanted someone who wouldn't push her away.

"Yes?" asked Serizawa. She sounded kind of sleepy there, maybe she had changed her mind. He wouldn't mind letting her sleep over. He even had spare pajamas that she would wear, though she'd be swimming in them.

"Can I ask you something?" asked Mob. Would he push her away? Would he run away? Would she? She wanted someone who would stay, who would care for her, who wouldn't lie to her. Serizawa could be that person.

"Of course, Master Kageyama…I mean Mob. You can ask me anything." Said Serizawa. They were friends and friends were open with each other. There was nothing that friends couldn't share with each other.

"What would happen if we kissed?" asked Mob sitting up so she was looking down at him. He stared up at her with wide eyes.

"….what….?" asked Serizawa. How could he have misread the atmosphere so badly? How could he have misread her so badly? She wanted to…but why? Why him? Why now? And why….just why?

"What would happen if we kissed? Would you push me away? Would you stay?" asked Mob. Master Reigen had pushed her away. He had kissed her back, her first kiss ever, and then he had ripped her heart out. She didn't want to remember it like that. She didn't want to think about what had happened, what it had been like.

"Do you…do you want to kiss me?" asked Serizawa. But why? He was so much older than her, more than twice her age! He wasn't…he wasn't good enough for her. She should be with somebody else, somebody better than him. If she wanted to be with someone so much older than him then she should have been with Reigen. He always knew just what to say and when to say it. Why was she with him and not Reigen or somebody like him? Did she…did she like him?

Well then.

"I asked you, didn't I? I know what I want, I'm not a child." Said Mob with a slight tone. So he thought that she was a child too? Fine. Whatever.

"I didn't say that you were! I'm just…surprised…I never thought that you felt that way about me." Said Serizawa. Wow. A girl liked him. No girl had ever liked him. He had never had the chance for a girl to like him. He had never had the chance to like a girl. There weren't any in the Ultimate Five or even the upper echelons at HQ. A girl liked him and it was her….the most powerful being on Earth. The wisest, nicest, kindest, most forgiving person that he had ever met.

"What would happen, Serizawa?" asked Mob. The last thing she wanted to think about was how she felt right then and there in the moment. She was only thinking of what she would feel. What she could feel. What she had thought that she would feel that night.

"I'd…kiss you back…" said Serizawa turning as red as the Unit 2 poster across the room. He had never in his life kissed anyone. He had never in his life ever thought that he would ever be in the position to kiss anyone. She wanted to kiss him…her. Mob. Shigeko. Master Kageyama. Angel. That was what she had been, when he first met her, an angel. Not an EVA angel but something sent down to save everyone…to save him. She had saved him in every way a person could be saved.

"Then what?" asked Mob. Maybe that was the other Shigeko. Self-denial eluded her. She knew what she wanted, what they wanted. What they had wanted, what they had planned. They wouldn't get it, though, any part of it, with the person they had wanted. They wouldn't and it hurt. But it didn't have to, did it?

"…what…do…do you mean?" asked Serizawa. What more did she want? Well, he knew what came after. There wasn't much to do locked in his room, especially during that period of his life. But he had never in his life thought that he would ever be in even the barest hint of a situation where someone would be asking him to kiss her, let alone asking him about what came after.

"I can feel your heartbeat." Said Mob resting her head on his chest again. She felt better, sort of. Not rejected. That was good. She wasn't being rejected and she wouldn't have something else to make her hurt.

"I can feel it too." Said Serizawa. He wondered how fast it would beat before it gave out. This was a lot. The only think keeping him from exploding was her. Her aura was around his, overpowering his. He floated in her aura like a raft on the sea. On a tsunami.

"Can you feel mine too?" asked Mob. Shifted and put his hand over her heart. Serizawa forgot how to breathe. All the little Serizawa's controlling his brain had decided to dedicate all of their energy into processing what he was feeling now. This was her, this was Master Kageyama. This was Mob. This was Shigeko. He was touching her. He was so close to touching her breasts, which was something that, once again, he never thought that he would ever have with anyone.

"Yes." said Serizawa after figuring out how to breathe again. She held her hand to her chest.

"I can tell. I can tell you're feeling me." Said Mob. She liked this, she wanted this. That was why her heart was beating so fast. He needed to feel her heartbeat. He needed to know.

"I can…I can feel your heartbeat. You…like to be heard." Said Serizawa. He could hear her. He could hear her aura. It was a metaphysical feeling but it was intense. It was pulsing as it rotated, the fractals that made her up.

"I do. I like to be heard." Said Mob. She liked it when he listened. Master Reigen hadn't listened. He had treated her like she was little, like she was the one acting dumb. Well she wasn't. She hadn't done anything wrong or dumb just like she wasn't being dumb now.

"…I like to listen." Said Serizawa. He liked her voice, her aura, her heartbeat, everything about her. He could listen to her all day. All night. Forever.

"To me?" asked Mob. So few people listened to her. Even Master Reigen ignored her, sometimes.

"Yes. I always listen to what you say, Master Kageyama…I mean Mob." Said Serizawa. She was wise. She taught him to be a good person, a better person. She was always so smart and sweet and kind.

"What would happen if I kissed you? Would you…let me?" asked Mob. She leaned down. She was so close to him. She could feel his heartbeat. She could feel him breathing.

"…yes…but…" said Serizawa. But it wouldn't be good. But he had no idea what he was doing, even at his age.

"But what?" asked Mob, a stab of rejection running through her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. What was he going to say? But you're too young? But I don't think that it would be right? But I want you to get out of my house right now?

"But I've never…kissed anyone…before." Said Serizawa. There. Now she knew.

"…I have." Said Mob. Did it count? It had felt so good but it left her feeling so awful. How could Master Reigen have kissed her back and then-no. Don't think about it now.

"Oh." Said Serizawa. Why did that bother him?

"So can I?" asked Mob. She could make it better. She could forget all about it. She could find and replace it so that this was the memory she would look back on.

"Kiss me?" asked Serizawa. She wanted to kiss him. She was asking to kiss him. Was he dreaming? Was he hallucinating? Had he finally lost his mind?

"Yes." said Mob after a moment. She wanted this. Every part of her wanted this, not just the other Shigeko.

"…sure…" said Serizawa. Mob closed her eyes, leaned down, and kissed him. She just held her lips over his, for a little while. He wasn't kissing her back. He wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing. She pulled away.

"Wow." Said Serizawa softly. That…was…amazing! He stared up at her. She stared down at him.

"Did you want to?" asked Mob quietly. Master Reigen had at least kissed her back, for like a millisecond but he had kissed her back.

"…more than anything." Said Serizawa. He had wanted that with someone more than anything. He had resigned himself to the fact that it would never happen but he had wanted it. Now he had it. Now he knew how it felt and it was amazing. Her lips had been so soft. She had been so heavy on top of him, so warm.

"Then why didn't you kiss me back?" asked Mob. She knew that people were supposed to kiss back. She had seen enough kissing on TV and in manga to know that.

"I didn't…I mean I don't know how." Said Serizawa. He had no idea what he was doing. Maybe he should just follow her lead. She had done this before. Why did it hurt, that she had done this before? She was with him now. Whoever the mystery guy was he was probably long gone. An idiot, too, to let her go.

"Do what I do." Said Mob before she leaned down and kissed him again. She tried to squish her powers down. There were a lot of breakables in his apartment. Tiny, beautifully painted and detailed models. She didn't want to break them. She had broken enough for today.

She kissed him softly, hesitantly, before deepening it. She could feel him open his mouth in surprise as she opened hers. She took that as an opportunity to explore him. He didn't taste like cigarettes at all. He tasted like…ramen. Ramen and tea and a little bit like dental floss. She kissed him as best as she could. This was uncharted territory for her, too. He reached up and held her by the shoulders. He felt so strong. She kept her eyes closed.

She was with Master Reigen. They were in the office, which had a bed in it for some reason, and he was kissing her. He was the one holding onto her. He wanted her to keep going. He didn't think that she was a child. She had confessed to him and it had gone perfectly and now they were a couple and it was perfect. He wasn't going to treat her like a little girl. He was going to treat her like a woman. He was going to love her like a woman.

She opened her eyes only when she felt herself getting a little light headed. She pulled herself away from Serizawa and sat up. He pulled himself into a sort of half sitting position. He was breathing deeply now. There was a string of drool between them. Mob batted it away. Right, she wasn't with Master Reigen. She was with Serizawa.

She had just kissed Serizawa.

Did she really want this?

**What does it matter? **

_We love Master Reigen_

**He's not here**

_No he's not_

**Serizawa is**

_He is_

"Don't." said Serizawa finding his voice. That had been a lot. That had been more than he ever thought would ever happen. He was thinking of her, now. He was looking at her, now. The way her shirt had ridden up. The way her skirt fell over her thighs. Ways that he made an effort not to look at anyone in. Girls didn't like it. They always slapped the guy for that, in anime at least.

"Why not? You like it." Said Mob. She had been mostly on top of him and she had eyes. She knew how much he liked it. Would this be like the time she and Master Reigen had napped on the office couch? When he had pushed her away and threw up? She didn't know if she could handle that.

"I do…but I like it too much." Said Serizawa. She had asked him what would come after. She didn't mean that. Surely she didn't. That would be impossible. Her hand was on his thigh. Not so impossible. He sat up quickly. That had been an accident, right? Right?

"Then what?" asked Mob simply. She had wanted this for so long. A year ago it was like a switch had flipped on and it seemed like she could only think of this. She had only thought about it with Master Reigen but…but that was never going to happen. That was never going to happen but this could happen. This could happen and it would happen and it was happening.

"What do you mean?" asked Serizawa. She was sitting up now, watching him. He brushed some of her hair out of her face and she leaned into his hand. She held eye contact with him. She had pretty eyes, a nice shade of brown.

"What would have happened if I hadn't stopped?" asked Mob. She squeezed her thighs together and dug her fingers into his bedspread. It was purple, a light purple, like his aura.

"…what do you want to happen?" asked Serizawa. There were so many ways that he could have misread the atmosphere so it was best, in that instance, to just ask her what she wanted. This did not seem like the time or place for any kind of miscommunication.

"Treat me…don't treat me like a…I mean…treat me like a woman." Said Mob. Serizawa looked at her.

"But you are a woman." Said Serizawa. She wasn't a guy, he would have noticed by now.

"Then treat me like a woman." Said Mob before she kissed him again. She put her weight onto him until they were laid down again. She rolled onto her side and continued to kiss him. He was getting better at this. She was. Maybe they both were. She used her powers to undo his tie and toss it over the side of the bed. He broke apart from her and stared.

"You want to…? Said Serizawa, his brain not fully computing the situation. She was flushed and her lips were kiss bruised. She had a layer of the two of them on her lips. He probably didn't look much different. The bed was trying to rise up off the ground. Thank God it was bolted down. All of the furniture was, for his own safety.

"Serizawa, tell me that you'll treat me like a woman." Said Mob. She wasn't a child anymore. Master Reigen said that she was, that she would always be. Well Serizawa didn't think that she was. He could see her for what she was. For who she had become.

"I will. I promise. I'm a man of my word." Said Serizawa breathlessly. She was there and she was so warm and sweet and nice and everything that he wanted for himself. She was like an angel. He could see her, her aura. He was bathed in her aura. He could see, too, if he looked, the cracks along her vessel and the white light that shined beneath. Her light. Not her final light. She had descended into his life like an angel down to him.

"Serizawa…please." Said Mob. She used her powers to play with his buttons. Her eyes were closed. She was seeing with her mind's eye. She pulled him on top of her. This was how it always went in her mind.

This was Master Reigen, in her mind. He was so heavy but not in a bad way. He surrounded her and kept her safe. She pushed herself against the entire length of him. He was so much bigger than her. Too big, actually. She pushed his suit coat off. She needed to keep it the way it was in her mind. That was better. She ran her hands through his hair. Softer. Curlier. She let her hands reach his back. Broader.

She kissed her way down his neck. He called her Master Kageyama. She chose to pretend that she didn't hear that. Master Reigen would call her Mob, or maybe Shigeko. She kissed him as hard as she could, enjoying the way he felt. The way he sounded. The way he kept going 'yes, yes. yes' over and over again. Oh. He was kissing her there, too.

Not hard enough. That was barely anything. Light, like having a butterfly walk across her neck. Master Reigen would have kissed her hard, like she wanted it. He would have taken the skin of her neck between his teeth and sucked as hard as he could. He would have bitten her, too, not hard enough to leave marks but hard enough so that she could actually **feel** it.

She uses her powers to work on his buttons. Precision is hard right now but she doesn't rip any off. She tosses his shirt away, too. She can feel her powers reaching out around her but everything is stuck. Even the tiny models seem to be superglued to the shelves. She can feel Serizawa, too. The energy around him beginning to crackle. She smooths it down as best as she can. She goes back inside of her own head.

She reaches up and tugs off his undershirt. She runs her hands up and down his chest. She actually had no idea what Master Reigen like without a shirt on but she imagined him as being boney. Boney and fuzzy because she did know he had a lot of arm and leg hair. Her hands found soft but fuzzy flesh. She ran her hands up and down his chest. Too soft, too broad. She tried to find some familiarity in it. She found none at his stomach, either. Soft and pudgy. She pressed her hands down, low, and earned herself a low groan and a tug at her shirt.

"Is this alright?" asked Serizawa. Mob resisted the urge to groan, but for a different reason. She nodded and pulled her shirt and under shirt off with her powers. She leaned back and went back into her mind.

She felt a tentative hand cup her breast. Then another. Then he just sort of sat there. Mob did groan that time and rolled her eyes behind her closed eye lids. That seemed to encourage him. He cradled them both for a moment before dragging his fingers up and resting them, gently, at her peaks. She knew that they were like gumdrops. She was cold and ready, two very favorable conditions for something like that to happen and oh! That had been nice, actually.

She had always imagined Master Reigen knowing just what she liked. Well, she could imagine him as figuring it out, too. She could imagine him feeling the weight of them, the shape of them, and then the feel of them. She could imagine him pressing down just enough so that she knew that he was there but not as hard as she liked. She could imagine him going in an up and down motion, too, instead of her usual circular motion. She could even imagine him bringing his head down and tentatively, extremely attentively, taking one in his mouth and licking it like it was an ice pop. It was pretty good, actually.

"Tell me if I'm doing something you don't like." Said Serizawa, stopping for a moment. She pushed his head back down. Did he have to talk to much?

"This is fine, keep going." Said Mob. She closed her eyes and went back to where she had been. If she concentrated hard enough she could even smell the office again.

She took a deep breath as he kissed his way down her stomach and to the waistband of her skirt. She raised her hips and undid the button and zipper. She slid the rest of her clothes off. She could almost smell the perpetual smell of incense, cigarettes, and green tea that filled the office. She could see the way Master Reigen would look at her, like he had been waiting for her for his entire life. She gasped as she felt him kissing her lower and lower and lower.

She reached down and grabbed his hair, pushing his head right where she wanted it. That little nubby thing that stood up when she was ready. It probably had a proper name but she didn't know what it was. All she knew was that when she touched it she felt amazing. He kept trying to go lower, though, so she kept on having to pull him up and put him back where he belonged. She crossed her legs behind his head to keep him there and yes! This was even better than in her mind.

She felt herself staring to unwind. She relaxed her legs and gripped the bed with both hands. She could feel her powers trying to lift the room. Everything seemed to be glued in place. She could feel the energy cracking around her, like the time when she had been struck by lightning. Well, all of the times. She rocked and moaned and gasped and made noises that under any other circumstances would have been humiliating. But she could never be humiliated in front of Master Reigen.

Unless he rejected her. Unless he-

No. That's not now. That's not this. Think about what's happening now. Think about this.

"Shigeko…Mob…do you…are you alright with-" said Serizawa raising his head from her.

"Yes. Whatever it is, yes." said Mob. He talked too much. She closed her eyes and leaned back. He went back to it, finally taking the hint as to where he should focus his attention. She leans back and lets herself soak into the bed for a moment before she feels oh my God! She feels something poking at her entrance. She leans into it. His mouth is still busy, thankfully not talking, and he's…wow. That's actually kind of nice. She scoots herself closer and puts a hand over her mouth. Two now. Deep, but not too deep. She angles her hips and bites her lip so she doesn't scream.

This is perfect.

She always focused on the outside, never the inside, when she was doing this. She hadn't really tried. She had always been a little afraid, she guessed. This was nice, though. It had been a little uncomfortable to start with but this was nice. More than nice once the initial discomfort had passed and she had a good rhythm going. She mewed in disappointment as he stopped everything. She had been so close.

"Can I…can we…can we have- "said Serizawa. Mob nodded and ground herself against him. She obviously wanted this so why ask? She wasn't little. She knew what she wanted! If she didn't want to do something then she would say so. She had already told him that she would tell him if he started doing anything that she didn't like.

"Yes. Just keep going!" said Mob. She was close but it was getting farther away. Her eyes were still closed but she could sense him there.

"I just thought that it would be good to ask in case you didn't want to-" said Serizawa. Mob wrapped her legs around him. He was sitting on his knees now as her legs had found his waist.

"I want to do everything, alright? You don't have to ask." Said Mob. She heard him gasp before he pushed her legs away. He leaned down and kissed her thighs, and then his way down her legs. She hears cloth his the floor with a metal clatter. She feels his full weight on top of her. He's laying over her, slowly. Oh.

She's thought about this a million times before. She wrapped her legs around him and brought her hands up to his shoulders. She had spent many a night staring up at her ceiling and imagining this. She had no frame of reference for what it would be like so she imagined. Long. Short. Thick. Thin. Whatever she wanted at the time. It was more about the grind than anything. She mostly focused on the outside. She turned her head to the side. She could smell herself on him and it was weird. She pulled her hair out of the way, too, because he was on it and it hurt a little. He was shaking, a little. She smoothed down the energy around them, his energy. He kissed the side of her neck a little and pushed forward. She had imagined this before and it would be…real.

Real.

REAL.

_REAL._

**Real.**

**REAL.**

This was real.

It didn't hurt. It was a little uncomfortable, bigger than she had thought, but it didn't hurt. She moved, after a moment. It was hard, though, because she wasn't the one making the rhythm. He was heavy, too. Too much weight on her. She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. The crack was still there.

She started to count. She got to forty eight before he went rigid and then rolled over next to her. He was staring at her now. She stared right back. She started to count again. She got to eighteen before he pulled her close.

"Did you like it? Did I hurt you?" asked Serizawa. She had made noise the whole time but her eyes were closed. He didn't know what he was doing, he just went off of manga, mostly, and what she had been telling him to do. Still, he knew that it hurt for girls, sometimes, and that it was hard to make it good for them. Well, that was what he had read.

"I liked it. You didn't hurt me. Did you like it?" Said Mob quietly. That had been real. That hadn't been something that she thought about. That had actually happened. She shifted. Oh. That was so gross! Worse then even when she was in bed and it was too late at night to clean up and change.

"I loved it." Said Serizawa. This was the second best day of his life. The best had been the day that he had met her. How long had she wanted this? How did he not know that she wanted this?

It was amazing.

"That's good." Said Mob. Did she love it? How did she feel? Icky. She felt slicky and icky and gross. That was what she needed to focus on. She felt too warm, suddenly. She needed space.

"How do you feel?" asked Serizawa. She was being quiet. Then again she was always quiet.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Said Mob. She got up and suddenly felt very naked. Well, she was naked. She saw his shirt on the ground and pulled it on, buttoning it as she walked. She closed the door, flipped on the light, and looked in the mirror.

She looked the same but she felt different. She splashed some water on her face before gasping.

She could have a baby.

She used her powers to get rid of all the sliminess she felt until she was back to normal. She still worried. Wait, no. Mom had gotten her that pill thing.

"_In case things ever get out of hand, Shigeko. You're almost in high school. Don't be stupid, though, this was expensive."_

Right. If she took it within…three? Three days then no babies. She just had to get home. Right. She took a deep breath and left the bathroom. Serizawa sat up and watched her.

"You aren't….you aren't coming back?" asked Serizawa. She was gather her clothes up. He needed her by his side. He felt…alone…more alone than he had even been in his life, when she had left his arms. After being so close to someone, as close as two people could be, how could he ever stand to be alone again?

"I..I am." Said Mob. He sounded the way that she did, earlier that day, when she had been rejected. Had it really been that day? How could it be the same day? It was. Everything felt different. Everything was different. She went back to bed and laid next to him. She pulled her close and used his powers to turn off the lights.

"Thank you…thank you so much." Said Serizawa as he closed his eyes. He was tired, more tired than he had ever been in his entire life.

"You're welcome." Said Mob as she was squished against his chest. At least she didn't feel slick and gross anymore. She could go home in the morning, or later at night. She really did need a nap.

"I love you." Said Serizawa as he drifted off.

Mob didn't say anything back.


	4. Keeping you in my Heart

Mob woke up to an unfamiliar room. It was too warm, this futon…no, a bed….it was not hers. It was warm and she was warm. The energy around her was wrong, too. Her room was saturated with her energy. This room was…oh. This was Serizawa's room. She sat up as best as she could. Someone was wrapped around her.

Serizawa was wrapped around her.

She tried to make him out in the dark. He was asleep. Still naked, probably. She shifted. She was still in his button down, it was kind of scratchy. The collar poked at her, the buttons pulled at her skin. She still wore it, though. She didn't really feel like being naked again.

Again.

So that was it. So that was how it felt. It was alright. Some part felt good, some parts didn't really feel like anything special. Well, it had felt like something, but not nearly as good as it would have been in her mind. Maybe if she set the rhythm next time.

Next time.

Would there be a next time? It hadn't been bad…just not as good as she had imagined. But did she want this again with Serizawa….had she even wanted it with Serizawa? Or had she wanted it just to have it? She didn't know. He was a really nice person and he would never reject her. He hadn't rejected her. He hadn't told her that she was too young. He had treated her like a woman. He had loved her like a woman.

He said that he loved her.

But she didn't love him back.

But where had love gotten her? It had gotten her heart shattered into a million little pieces.

But she still wanted…oh what did she want? To go home. She wanted to go home. She needed to go home. It was…she called her phone over to her. Wow. Ok, yeah, she needed to get home. Twenty nine missed calls, thirty texts, and five voicemails all from Ritsu. She texted him back.

"_I'm sorry brother. I was hanging out with Serizawa and I fell asleep. I'm on my way home now."_ That wasn't a lie. She couldn't lie to her little brother. She hoped that he didn't ask for details, though, because she had no idea what to say without telling the truth of what happened between the two of them. She held her breath. Three moving dots. Ritsu was texting her something back. He must have been waiting up by his phone.

"_OK sister. I'll wait up for you." _Mob wondered why he had to type for so long to get so few words. At least he hadn't asked why she was at Serizawa's house. She slid out of bed as softly as she could and called her clothes to her. They were easy to find. She tended to saturate her things with her energy. She pulled off his button down and got dressed quickly but quietly. He stirred, a little, and for a moment she felt…bad…because he had wanted her to stay. She had to go home, though, Ritsu was worried and she had to take her medicine because she was not at all ready to have a baby.

She had done this. She had done this with Serizawa.

She tried to think about something else as she left, anything else. It didn't work so she tried to think of nothing. She just focused on putting one foot in front of the other as she walked. Sometimes you had to run away. She didn't know why she felt like running away but she was. She should be happy. She was over Master Reigen.

She hated telling lies.

Maybe she shouldn't have done it, done anything. Maybe she should have just gone home and cried and gone into work like nothing had happened. If she hadn't run into Serizawa then that was what she would have ended up doing. Fate was funny like that. She had done this, though, and she couldn't undo it.

At least she wasn't alone, anymore.

Serizawa woke up alone.

It was the sun that had gotten to him. He had forgotten to close the blinds, not like him at all. Well, he was awake now and had might as well open his eyes and start his day. Hey! It was a work day! He and Master Kageyama, no, he and Shigeko could go to work together. Or Mob. She liked Mob better even though the nickname made no sense.

As if she could ever blend in.

He reached over and felt for her. Nothing. He opened his eyes. The bathroom door was opened, she wasn't in there. She wasn't in the kitchen, either. He felt for her with his aura. She was out of his range. He took in a deep, shaky breath. He could see the energy around him form and crackle.

Where was she? Why did she go?

Alone. He was alone. She was gone. She had left him. She had gone off and probably never wanted to see him again and-

Wait, no. Right, school. She had school to go to. She had probably just gotten up and gone to school. She just hadn't said goodbye because…because she didn't want to wake him! Yes, she had wanted to let him sleep. She was so considerate like that.

His girlfriend was so considerate.

Was she his girlfriend now? She must have been. She went to dinner with him, which in retrospect was a date, and then she came home with him and they slept together. That was what a girl did when she was your girlfriend, right?

She must have been. He loved her. He knew it to be true. From the moment they came together he never wanted to be apart from her again. How could they ever be apart when they had been as close as humanly possible? When she had been under him? Around him? Wrapped around him. Touching him. Kissing him.

He needed to see her again. He needed to speak to her. He needed to at least hear her voice. He was about to call her but he stopped himself. No. She was at school and she had her own life to live and he would see her at work again today. Maybe they could go on another date. Maybe they could…again.

Serizawa was getting a little dizzy. He rolled out of bed and looked for his clothes from yesterday. She'd change his shirt and underclothes but his suit was probably still good. He found his button down. It smelled like her, he could smell it as he picked it up. That musky sort of arousal smell coupled with her flowery shampoo. It was a shame to wash it but he couldn't just save it forever. He only had to many shirts. He used his powers to toss it in the laundry bag in the bathroom. His pants followed it. Those were absolutely covered in her smell. He could not walk around like that.

He just tossed everything into the laundry basket. There was no saving it. He would have gotten all the way undressed before, if she had given him more warning that she had wanted to…

The mirror cracked. Right. Time to start the day. Time to shower and get dressed and get to work because he had a life now and he had things he needed to do. It was just so hard not to think about it. It had been the greatest night of his life. The day they met was the greatest day of his life. He would see her again today and they could spend time together and maybe kiss again or even do that, whatever she wanted, and it would be wonderful. Everything would be wonderful.

He wasn't alone anymore.

Reigen Arataka was alone. He had drowned his sorrows last night in liquor and a woman he could not remember the name of. Now it was tomorrow. His eyes were crusted shut, his mouth tasted like a pukey ashtray, and his clothes were sticky with…hopefully just vomit.

He got up from his bedroom floor with a groan. Great, now he had gotten himself a back pain curse. He walked towards the bathroom, stripping down with every step. First the tie, then the coat. He unbuttoned his shirt as best as he could, pulling it right up over his head towards the end. He hopped out of his pants and boxers and jumped into the shower.

The water was turned all the way to hot.

His socks were still on.

Well then, wasn't this a wonderful way to start the day?

He showered as best as he could, tossing his socks off eventually. The hit the wall with a splat. He stood under the water and let it wash away the previous day. This was tomorrow, a new day, and he would have to face Mob. What would he tell her? What could he tell her?

She had confessed, he had confessed right back. She loved him, he loved her. It didn't matter how she felt though because she was still only fifteen. Fuck the law, she was too young for him. In her was a world of promise and she would not be kept in bondage. She could learn from all of his failures and do all she was meant to, all he failed to.

He would ruin her.

He wanted to be with her, he wanted her more than anything else in the entire world. She was Mob. She was perfection. A drop of star shine come to Earth in the form of a girl. Her sweetness, her kindness, her devotion, they all sustained him. She sustained him. What would he have done without her in his life? How could he had existed this long? He would have been nothing without her. She made him a better person. She made him someone.

She was his everything and he had pushed her away for her own good. She didn't need to spend her youth tied down to him. She knew him for what he was but she still wanted him. She was young. She didn't know what she wanted or what she was doing. She just wanted, that was the curse of youth. She just wanted and wanted with no thought to the future. Her future. He couldn't give her a future.

He would only hold her back. When she was older, when she was a grown woman, then she could make that choice. When the gap between them was less of a chasm. When she could at least vote and drive. When she could get married and drive and most of the other privileges of adulthood that he took for granted. Her world was still so small, after all. She wasn't even in high school yet. She had her whole life to see what else the world had to offer. To see who else the world had to offer.

Even though the thought of her with someone else makes him want to tip his head back and let himself drown under the scalding hot water. The thought of her looking at someone the way she looked at him. Telling another man she loved him. Offering herself to another man, laying back like he had imagined all of those times when he hated himself.

Those times in the night when the room was stiflingly hot, when he was tossing and turning. When he was digging his nails into his palms and trying as best as he could to stop thinking about her. To stop remembering some little, seemingly insignificant thing about her. The way her hair was so soft he could just run his fingers through it for hours. The soft floral smell of her shampoo. The way she would smile, just a little, when he thought she wasn't look. The curve of her side and it jutted out into her hip. The swell of her breasts against her shirt, even when she wore larger ones. The way her skin was so soft, so incredibly soft.

Reigen banged his head against the tile. Great. He let his head tilt down and he looked down at the predicament he had gotten himself in. He couldn't chase the thoughts of Mob from his mind. Liquor wouldn't do the job and neither would other women. He had it bad for her.

He loved her.

He loved her and he was a terrible person for it. He was twenty nine years old. What kind of a twenty nine year old man was in love with a fifteen year old girl?

Serizawa Katsuya was the first one at work, for once. He checked the clock. He wasn't that early, was he? A glance at the clock told him that he was on time. The room was too empty. No Master Reigen, no Master Kageyama…no Mob. Yes, her name was Mob and she wanted to be called Mob and she had granted him her name, well the name Mob, because she…she loved him. She was his girlfriend. Right?

This would be wonderful. He glanced at her desk as he got the electric kettle going. She'd come through the door and he'd see her again and they'd spend time together and he could satiate this growing need he had to be beside her. It wasn't just about sex. She was someone who he could feel safe around. She was the person who had accepted him fully for who he was. She wasn't afraid of him at all and he would never hurt her. He couldn't hurt her. Not on purpose or on accident.

He stopped moving and closed his eyes, letting the memory of her reaching over and smoothing down his energy spikes. The way that with only a gesture she would calm him down, keep him from exploding, put him completely at ease. How soft she felt, her aura against his. How warm her aura felt. How he could just let her settle over him like the sun on a warm summer's day.

He took a breath and got back to opening procedures. The kettle was going, that was the important thing. Master Reigen liked a cup of tea when he came in. He liked to lean back and have a cup of tea and a smoke and, as he said, 'let the day wash over him.' Serizawa usually just watched him, sometimes he read. It took the day a minute to start. He was the such part of Spirits and Such so he had more to do. Serizawa sometimes spent whole days at his desk waiting for something spiritual to happen. It wasn't boring, though, because he usually spent that time talking to Mob.

What would he say to her when she came in? How as he supposed to greet her? Was he supposed to kiss her, now? Hug her? Tell her that he loved her? She hadn't said it back but…but she had been asleep already. She had been asleep and hadn't heard him. That was it. She loved him back. She must have loved him back. She had shared herself with him. She had asked him to share himself with her.

That had meant that she loved him, right? He wasn't wise to the ways of women, actually most of what he knew about them came from TV and manga, but he knew that they didn't just go around sleeping with people randomly. Right? Not outside of hentai? Right? He couldn't imagine Mob doing that. She was so careful of her person, so guarded. She wouldn't have just slept with him for no reason, right?

He checked Google. It was unhelpful.

Reigen walked into the office with noticeably less spring in his step. His head hurt, his eyes hurt, his back hurt, everything sort of hurt. He needed a smoke and a nice cup of tea. Wait, Serizawa would have already come in and made it. Well, he needed something that could be classified as tea. How the man still could not make a cup of tea was beyond even the great Reigen Arataka's comprehension. He'd have to ask Mob to show Serizawa again. Mob

Would she come in today? Would she ever come back? The thought of going their separate ways fills him with an icy sort of feeling. The thought of seeing her again fills him with that same sort of feeling. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. She would probably come in and everything would be normal. She'd sit at her desk and help him when he needed it, she might even tell him about her day, too. Then after work they'd get ramen and maybe talk about yesterday and they'd come to some sort of agreement.

He would ruin her, he knew that he would, but wasn't that her choice? When she grew up, when she was an actual grown woman, then she could make that choice. When he wouldn't end up hating himself if he picked her up, laid her down on his desk, and made fantasy become reality. When nobody could forbid her from being with him. When nobody would think that he was weird for being with her. Thirty two and eighteen was weird but twenty nine and fifteen was just…not right. People would talk, all kinds of people. They'd say all kinds of things. They'd call him all sorts of names and make all sorts of insinuations.

He didn't want that for himself and he didn't want Mob to deal with the fallout from that.

He ascended the stairs, feeling the familiar prickling of energy that told him that Serizawa was near. He took a breath and opened the door. He needed to look ok because if he didn't look ok then Serizawa would worry. He'd worry and his anxiety would act up and he'd explode. That was not something that Reigen was prepared to deal with. He opened the inner door and took a step through the threshold. He had barely gotten a foot in the door when Serizawa looked up and addressed him.

"Master Reigen? Can I ask you something?" asked Serizawa as he looked up. Google was no help. He just wished that there was some definitive guide to the psychology of women so he would know if she loved him or not. If she didn't love him and they weren't in a relationship then he would look like an idiot. If she did love him back and he asked her he'd look like an idiot. If she loved him back then he'd be happy, the happiest man on Earth. If she didn't love him back then he'd feel like his heart had been ripped out and shown to him.

"Is it important?" asked Reigen as he sat down at his desk. Serizawa got up and poured him a cup of what could only be classified as hot leaf water.

"To me or to you or to work?" asked Serizawa. It was only important to him, he decided. Master Reigen had never said a word about his love life before and it wasn't a work thing either. They were friends too, though, so that meant that they could talk about…stuff…right? Stuff not related strictly to work?

"Just ask me." Said Reigen. He was not in the mood for a game of twenty questions. Knowing Serizawa it would probably be clarification of some social rule. Well, time to be the great Reigen Arataka again.

"How do you know if a girl loves you back?" asked Serizawa quickly. Reigen lifted an eyebrow. So Serizawa was human after all.

"How long have you known her?" asked Reigen. Serizawa and a woman, a human woman. A woman who existed in life. Good for him. It was about time he felt love's cruel and searing embrace.

"About a year." Said Serizawa. Master Reigen would know. He was a smart and good looking guy. He probably knew all that there was to know about women.

"Are you friends?" asked Reigen. He could not for the life of him think of any women that Serizawa might have had a shot with. When did he even have time to meet a woman? He spent his free time building plastic models and playing videogames, not exactly prime woman meeting grounds.

"Yes. We've been friends for a while." Said Serizawa. Google said that it was important to get to know her and make friends first. Love at first sight was just on TV, Google said, and that he should resist the urge to confess to a girl he didn't know all too well because then she would be creeped out.

"Did you ask her out?" asked Reigen. He had actually, and shamefully, pegged Serizawa as one of those guys who had a body pillow for a girlfriend. Well wasn't he just a class A jerk? Rejecting Mob, thinking so lowly of Serizawa…he was the world's biggest asshole.

"We went on a date yesterday…I think…" said Serizawa. He hadn't meant it to be a date. He had just wanted to make her happy. Did it only count as a date if he was trying to be romantic? Or did her feelings decided whether or not they were on a date?

"You think?" asked Reigen. Serizawa was lucky he had someone like Reigen to guide him…even though Reigen's own love life was in shambles. He at least knew when he was on a date.

"I mean, I took her to dinner and then we went to the model store and then she said that she didn't want to go home so she came over." Said Serizawa. He started to turn a little red. He called his umbrella to him. He didn't open it, it was enough to hold it.

"And then….?" Asked Reigen. Well, at least someone in this office was romantically successful…and it was Serizawa of all people! Mob was heartbroken. He was heartbroken and hung over. Serizawa was out there bringing home women with the seductive power of plastic models.

"She um….we um…." Said Serizawa. Reigen watched him for a moment before getting up and smacking Serizawa on the back. Serizawa lost his balance and almost fell over.

"I am so fucking happy for you!" said Reigen. He genuinely was. Serizawa was a friend, his only adult friend. He deserved happiness, even if it was just taking a woman home for the…first time? He had always assumed that Serizawa was pure as the driven snow but then again he did have a whole life spent with Claw. Who knew what those guys got up to when they weren't planning world domination?

"Really?" asked Serizawa. He had been worried that Master Reigen would have thought that it was weird, because it was Mob. Of course Serizawa was also forgetting that he had never said that it was Mob to begin with.

"Of course! This is big step for you, socially. I can't believe that you actually brought a woman home with you!" said Reigen. He really couldn't.

"…thanks…" said Serizawa. He wasn't sure how he should take that. The nice way, he decided. Master Reigen would never make fun of him.

"So, are you seeing her again?" asked Reigen. Even if it was a one night thing this would be great for Serizawa. Someone in this office ought to be happy.

"Yes. Today." Said Serizawa. He didn't know if he should ask her to come home with him again. He wanted to. Last night had been amazing and he wanted to repeat it even if it was only the part where he slept next to her. Skin to skin…so much skin to skin. He hadn't realized how much he needed it until he got a taste.

"Well then she's a lucky lady. Tell me how it goes." Said Reigen. The universe was all topsy-turvey. Serizawa was getting women, he was breaking Mob's heart, Mob was being open with her feelings…what next? Her little brother comes over and tries to make friends?

"That's what I wanted to ask you about. The thing is…I told her that I loved her…afterwards…before I fell asleep." Said Serizawa. Reigen groaned. That was the last thing anyone wanted to hear after what sounded like just a regular, albeit intimate, date. Declarations of love were meant to be stewed on for years and then thrown down like a gantlet. At least that was his, rather limited, experience.

"Don't ever do that! Not this early! You only went on one date!" said Reigen. Serizawa focused on keeping it together. You could say it too early? He had only said it because that was how he had felt in the moment, that moment while he drifted off with her in his arms.

"How many dates until I can tell her. I really, really, love her and I think that she might love me too but I'm not sure. The internet wasn't very helpful. It said that maybe she was in love with me and maybe she just wanted to…sleep with me." Said Serizawa

"More than one, less than a hundred." Said Reigen quickly. There was no set number of dates but that seemed like a good range. Not that he had much hope for Serizawa. The first date? If he was that woman he would head for the hills.

"That's a big range, Master Reigen." Said Serizawa. That left ninety eight possible dates. Was that how long it took for women to decide if they loved you? Well, they had to be very picky. They were the ones that had the babies after all.

Babies….

Oh **no.**

"Hey, what's wrong? You're freaking out again." Said Reigen. Well, this was probably a lot for him. Relationships were stressful even at the best of times. He risked a glance at Mob's desk. Very stressful.

"I'm a moron…" said Serizawa quietly. How could he have been so stupid?! He couldn't take care of a baby! He could barely take care of himself!

"Because you told this woman you loved her? Yeah, you kind of are but you could always try to salvage the situation. Just tell her you got emotional or something." Said Reigen. Yeah, he knew about emotional. When Mob came in he'd settle…whatever there was to settle. Convince her to wait. Convince her that he hadn't wanted to hurt her. Convince her-

"It's not that. I just…I can't have a baby…" said Serizawa. Reigen stared at him.

"No, no you can't…because you're a guy. Now if you were stupid enough to not use anything, well, then that's an entirely different conversation. Please, for the love of God, tell me that I don't have to take you to the drug store and teach you the facts of life…." Said Reigen with a groan. Great. Well then at least this distracted from his problems.

"I know about that! I just…wasn't thinking. The whole thing happened really fast! I mean, one minute we're drinking tea and hanging out and then she's asking me to come to bed with her! I didn't even think that she would ever want to…with me…I mean we only had dinner alone together once and-" said Serizawa before Reigen cut him off.

"The next time you see her, Serizawa, talk to her. Make sure you talk to her because this is a big thing and, you're right, you can't raise a kid right now. I know how much you make, I'm the one paying you." Said Reigen. Poor guy. It was a scare, it always was a scare, when these sorts of scares happened. Not that he had to worry about these sorts of scares. The only person he really wanted to be with, who he would even consider rolling the dice on this with, was too young and probably hated his guts.

"You're right. Thank you, Master Reigen." Said Serizawa. The next time he saw her he'd talk to her. He had to talk to her. But what was he supposed to say? And what if she did end up with a kid? He did? Then what? Ok, calm down. She's probably not. She wouldn't just take her chances with that. There were things that girls did. He was aware-ish that they existed. Not about what they were but he was aware of their existence.

Yeah, he'd be fine.

Mob knew that she'd be fine.

She'd be fine and everything would be fine. Nothing would be not fine. Everything would be normal. There was no reason for anything at all to be out of the ordinary. She was going to work, the place where she spent most days after school. She was going to work and she would sit at her desk and she'd do whatever she had to and it would be a totally normal day.

Aside from the fact that she had confessed to Master Reigen.

Aside from the fact that she had kissed Master Reigen.

Aside from the fact that she had been rejected by Master Reigen.

Aside from the fact that she had kissed Serizawa.

Aside from the fact that she had slept with Serizawa.

Aside from the fact that Serizawa said that he loved her.

Maybe is she pretended really hard that this was just an ordinary day, that nothing was abnormal, then everything would be normal. The first thing she had to do was open the door and go up the stairs. Yup. Any moment now. Come on. No time like the present.

She, Mob, thought that going to work was the best course of action. The other her, the thing that lived inside her, under her skin, had other ideas.

The other Shigeko wanted them to run away. To run away because it would just be a lot of negative emotion. That she would have to save them in the way that she always saved them. But she also wanted…not that situation but…again. She wanted instrumentality again even though it hadn't even been real instrumentality.

Well she had made quite the mess now hadn't she?

Sometimes you had to run away but she was not going to run away from this. She could not bear it, to go her separate ways again from Master Reigen. Running away was not an option. She just had to face this like she had to face everything else in her life. Just like she had faced the seventh division of Claw, just like she had stopped Toichiro from taking over the world. Come on, Mob. One foot in front of the other. Just like that.

Serizawa felt her long before he saw her. She was outside the building. He waited for ten agonizing minutes. Ten minutes until she came in. He needed to see her. He needed to talk to her. He needed to be around her. He had never needed anyone like he needed her in that moment. Why did it hurt so much, being away from her? Because they had been so close. Because they had been all bodies and skin and auras and feelings and sounds and words…because the barriers between the two of them had come down almost completely.

She was coming in, now. Master Reigen was busy in the other room with a client. He was supposed to be waiting for walk-ins. Well, he was sort of doing his job. He was waiting for her to walk in. She was just outside the door. She wasn't coming in. Why? What was wrong? She usually came right in and got to work.

Whatever was bothering her, he could fix it, even if he didn't know how.

He stared at the door, his anxiety growing with every passing second. After an unknown amount of time, it could have been minutes or seconds or hours for all he knew the door began to open. He got up, he needed to…he needed to be near her. She stepped through the threshold and closed the door softly.

Mob could feel Serizawa. She had been able to feel Serizawa and that was why she had paused. What could she say? What would she say? How could she say whatever it was that she had to say? She hadn't…it hadn't been great and she hadn't been thinking when she…when they…and now he loved her…

Such a mess.

Maybe if she pretended that everything was normal than it would be normal.

That plan went right out the window the second she closed the door.

"Mob…I missed you." Said Serizawa as he stood in front of her. She looked normal. She was wearing her uniform and had her hair the same but to him she was the most amazing girl he had ever seen.

"Serizawa…I missed you too." Said Mob. Well, she had been thinking really hard about him. Same thing, right? He looked at her for a while, it looked like he was thinking really hard for a while. He shifted his weight back and forth a few times.

"Serizawa, are you alright?" asked Mob. He didn't say anything. He just leaned down and kissed her. It was quick, and dry, and kind of off center, but he had kissed her.

"I missed you a lot and I've been thinking about you all day and I really wanted to do that and also are you having a baby?" asked Serizawa quickly. Mob blinked.

"I'm not having a baby." Said Mob. She had made sure of that. Serizawa relaxed.

"Thank you! I was just so worried!" said Serizawa taking her hand in his. She seemed calm as ever. She didn't even blink.

"We're at work, Serizawa. You shouldn't kiss me and stuff here." Said Mob. Maybe she was holding out hope for Master Reigen. Maybe she just didn't want him to know. Maybe she wanted this with Serizawa. Maybe she just wanted someone to love her. Either way she didn't want to get into it with Master Reigen again.

"Oh, ok. Sorry, I just…I really missed you." Said Serizawa letting go of her hand. There was always after work. Would she want to spend time with him after work again? Would she wanted to…again? He didn't care! He just wanted to be near her.

"I missed you too…" said Mob because, well, she had already said it before.

"Do you want to…do you want to do something after work?" asked Serizawa meaning literally whatever she wanted to do. So this was what love felt like. A growing need to be beside her, to please her, and to keep her happy.

"Uh…I guess…" said Mob. Again? Well, it hadn't been that bad…and she did like some of it…and he wanted to…so why not?

"Great! Whatever you want!" said Serizawa taking her hand in his even though they were at work. He just really, really needed to touch her. He hardly ever touched anyone so he had no idea how much he missed skin to skin contact. Was something wrong with her? Why was she looking at him like that?

"Ok…" said Mob. What did she want? She wanted to…she wanted to see Master Reigen…but that was wrong now, wasn't it? Serizawa was still holding her hand, still looking at her. She looked back up at him. He was nice and he wanted to be with her. So why did she still want to be with Master Reigen? He had rejected her, so why did she still like him? Why had she been thinking about him the whole time? Why had she thought about him all night when she got home? Why was she still thinking about him now?

"Can you tell me what's bothering you?" asked Serizawa. Her face was expressionless but he could see her aura. Something was still bothering her, but what? If they were together then it was his job to make her happy and fix whatever it was. Right? He mostly knew about this stuff from anime and manga but he was pretty sure that was his job.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Where's Master Reigen?" asked Mob. She just needed to see him, that was all. Maybe if she saw him then she would remember how much he had hurt her and then maybe she would stop thinking about him and think about Serizawa because he was there and he wanted to be with her and he had been with her and she had been with him and everything should have been great but it just…wasn't.

"He's in with a client." Said Serizawa. He felt something bad, something painful and aching. Jealousy. But he had no reason to be jealous. Of course she would be looking for Master Reigen, they had been master and student for years.

"You should let go of my hand, then, because we're at work." Said Mob. She didn't want Master Reigen to know…but…but he didn't want to be with her anyway…but…ick! Such a mess!

"Oh…ok…" said Serizawa. He took a moment to let her go. She sat at her desk and he sat at his. Opposite side of the room. It felt like a million kilometers.

Mob pretended to look at her phone. The screen was still black. She just…she was still tired. That was it. Between Ritsu asking her over and over again if she had been with Reigen and the sadness from being rejected by Master Reigen and then doing…that…with Serizawa…she didn't get much sleep. She didn't hear a word of anything said at school, either. Just what she had done…she looked over at Serizawa. What she could do. He smiled at her. She smiled back. He had a nice smile. Nice eyes, too.

He wouldn't ever reject her.

She held Serizawa's gaze. Her face was, to him, unreadable. She could be expressive, though, he was well aware of that. The faces she had made. Eyes closed shut, mouth slightly opened. Her biting her lower lip, her eyes screwed shut, her face completely red, her nails digging into his back as he-

A ceramic pot shattered. Dirt flew in all directions. Mob caught the dirt and the plant. She held them up in the air while she tried her best to put the ceramic back together. It was together after a while but it looked like it was covered in scars. She put the plant back where it belonged and willed it to keep growing.

"Thanks." Said Serizawa. Right. His own home might have been reinforced but this room wasn't. Right. He was at work and one did not think about that at work even though it had been beyond amazing and she was with him and oh yes! They could do that again and again because that was what people who were together did and-

"Serizawa. Are you ok?" asked Mob. She could see his power spiking again. She smoothed it down and made it her own before he could break something else. Was he thinking about it, too? Maybe. He had said that he loved her after all and he had said, too, that he had never even kissed anyone before. They were even, then, because neither had she. Heh. They were even.

"Fine! I'm fine…I'm just thinking…" said Serizawa. She was so nice. She was so small and nice and pretty and wonderful and…everything! And she was his and he just wanted to hold her and never let her go but not in a mean way because she was her own person and had a life and a family and he couldn't keep her with him even if she wanted to say because she was beholden to her family but it would just be so nice to spend every single night with her and then wake up next to her in the morning and then they could make breakfast and walk to work or maybe not because she had school in the morning but then they could see each other after work and then they could do it all again and it would be so nice and he wouldn't be alone and she was so wonderful and-

"Me too. I'm thinking about a lot of stuff. You, mostly. Other stuff too." Said Mob. Did he have regrets? Did she have regrets? Maybe. Maybe she should have thought before she acted. Maybe she shouldn't have focused so much on making herself feel better because she had totally forgotten to think if she was acting on good ideas or bad ideas. But she wouldn't say that. Serizawa said he loved her and she knew what it felt like to have someone you loved reject you. She didn't think that she could cause someone that kind of pain.

"I think about you too. I'm sorry that I told you that I-" said Serizawa before a door opened and footsteps filled the office.

"Glad to hear that! My assistant will write you out a receipt." Said Reigen as he sat down at his desk. Mob tore her gaze from Serizawa towards Master Reigen. She couldn't hear anything but her heartbeat in her ears. He was there, at his desk, like everything was normal. Like yesterday never happened. She was vaguely aware that the client was gone. Now it was just the three of them. She stared at him and stared at stared. Serizawa stared at her staring at Reigen. This wasn't odd for her, she did tend to look off in one direction for a while. Master Reigen just so happened to be sitting in the direction of her staring. Reigen on the other hand, was staring at his computer. He couldn't look back towards Mob even though she was staring at him. Maybe she'd get tired and do something else, anything else.

She didn't. Of course she didn't. This was Mob.

"Hey, Serizawa? You mind sanitizing the curse removal table for me?" asked Reigen. Fine. If Mob wanted to talk then he'd bit the bullet and talk to her.

"Sure thing!" said Serizawa getting up quickly. He had been watching her watching Reigen. The more he stared the more he thought about her. The more he thought about her the more jealous he began to get. She was looking at Reigen, so? She did that all the time. He took a moment before getting up. She was still looking at Reigen.

"Mob, let's talk." Said Reigen as he heard the door close. Mob didn't move, didn't give him any acknowledgement.

"We're talking right now." Said Mob after a moment. What was there to talk about? He rejected her. There. Simple as pie.

"I mean about yesterday." Said Reigen with a sigh. How had she taken it? Cried into her pillow all night? Had an explosion and took out a section of the city? Found some guy her own age and spent her night the same way he had spent his night. The thought of Mob with someone else makes him want to rip his own heart out just to make the pain stop…and he knows full well that it's not a healthy feeling.

"What do you mean? What's there to talk about?" asked Mob. She knew a no when she heard it. She knew lies when she heard them. She knew him and she knew that he would tell her anything to make her feel better.

"You know exactly what we have to talk about." Said Reigen. She was being intentionally obtuse. She had confessed to him, she had kissed him. He had confessed to her. He had kissed her back. He had broken her heart. Plenty of conversational material there.

"Do you mean when we had the fight? We don't need to talk about it. I know that you were saying no. I understand, Master." Said Mob. She didn't need him to rub salt in her wounds. She didn't need him to say it again and again and again. She heard him the first time.

"You understand that…that you're too young right now, right?" asked Reigen. Maybe she had decided to think about what she said and had come to the mature conclusion and waited. This was Mob after all. She was more mature than to do what he had done. She wouldn't just jump on some guy because she was feeling hurt. She was better than he was.

"I understand that you think I'm too young." Said Mob. She wasn't too young. Serizawa certainly didn't think so and he was older than Master Reigen. Master Reigen was just trying to make her feel better.

"Then you understand that it's better to wait?" said Reigen. See, Mob could be plenty mature. She could be very understanding.

"I understand that you think that it's better to wait." Said Mob. Wait for three years until, what, exactly? Until he could reject her again? Until he thought that she would lose interest? Until the sun went out and everything returned to nothing?

"Good. See, Mob, I knew that a night to think on this would be beneficial for both of us. Thank you for being so mature and understanding." Said Reigen. He wanted to walk over and pat her on the back at least, but he didn't. Too soon. It was too soon to touch her again, to go back to their old comradery…if they ever could. It would be better when she was older. He could confess to her for real. He could be with her for real. Eighteen was at least a legal adult. Fifteen was…too young. He didn't care about consent laws, fifteen was too damned young.

"You're welcome…Master." Said Mob. She understood just fine. She understood that he wanted her to lose interest while she waited. She understood that no matter how bad things got he would still tell her whatever she wanted to hear. She understood that the last thing either of them wanted was to go their separate ways. Fine then, they wouldn't go their separate ways, but Mob wouldn't hold onto false hope.

The work day went as it normally did. They got called out to exorcise a parking garage of a man who had died of exhaustion looking for his car. Serizawa handled it before Mob got a chance to, then he fussed over her for a little bit, something that Reigen found a bit odd but Serizawa was an odd guy sometimes. Mob was like his only other friend so of course it would stand to reason that he would be concerned about her.

It was even odder when they both turned him down for after work ramen. Mob he could understand, she was probably still a little sour about how things went.

It was downright strange when they both walked home in the same direction. Mob didn't live anywhere near Serizawa. They just walked off in the same direction. Mob nonplussed as ever, Serizawa holding his umbrella between two clenched hands.

Had he missed something?


	5. Hearts at the edge of the abyss

"Is it still too hot?" asked Serizawa as he sat across from her at his tiny table. He had made her dinner, omurice. She had said that she liked it and he didn't really know how to cook anything else well. He made great cup noodle but she didn't want ramen. That was why she had turned down Master Reigen. He would have had dinner with Master Reigen if she had wanted to go with but she didn't. She wanted to be with him.

Like a girlfriend.

Not that he's going to ask her if she's his girlfriend. If he asked then she could think that he was doubting the relationship. She could also say no and that they were just having sex, which people sometimes did. She didn't seem like that kind of person, though. That seemed like more of something a guy would do anyway. Girls were more selective, he thought. They certainly were on TV.

Not that this was TV or anything. This was real life and he was having dinner again for the second time ever with his sort of girlfriend. She seemed…happy? It was hard to tell with her. She had to keep her emotions closed off or she could explode. He could understand that. Still, he absolutely loved it when she smiled.

"No, it's fine. I'll eat in a minute. I'm just thinking." Said Mob. She had said no to Master Reigen. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't just sit there in their normal ramen place and eat with him like nothing happened. She couldn't just sit there and pretend that everything was ok. It wasn't. It hurt so much and she had no idea when it would ever stop. Would it go on forever? Would it end tonight? Did it come with the darkness? Did it bring out the light? Would it ever quit?

She knew how to make it quit.

She had someone who loved her. It wouldn't quit because she still loved Master Reigen. It would quit when she had someone else to love.

Serizawa loved her.

Maybe she could love him? He was nice to her and with the added bonus of never having had rejected or lied to her. He cared about her a lot. He made her dinner when he didn't have to and even earlier he had done the exorcism for her, even though she was more than capable, and had spent almost ten minutes hovering over her to make sure she was ok. Not that she had been annoyed by that. People who cared about you were supposed to act like that.

She cared about him, too. She cared and was his friend and he loved her and he treated her like a woman, not a little girl, and that was good and she was going to be happy. She was happy. She was so happy.

"Did you want something else? I can make you something else if you want me to!" said Serizawa. Maybe she had only said that she liked it because she was trying to be polite. What if he was a terrible cook? What if she decided that she wanted to go home and eat dinner and never wanted to have dinner with him again and then she decided that she never wanted to see him again and then-

"No, this is good. Thank you, Serizawa." Said Mob taking a bite. It was very good, she decided. Better than when she tried to cook, anyway. He cared about her so much that he made her not only dinner but really good dinner. This was nice.

"You're welcome! I mean, I'm glad you like it. I could make this for you again…if you wanted me to." Said Serizawa poking his food with his fork. So how did this work? Did they always eat together or only once in a while? How often was the optimal amount? Would she want to make him dinner one day? Could she cook? Would she want him to ever go to her house for dinner? Would she want him to meet her family? Did she want to meet his mother? Was it too early for that? Would she-

"This tastes good, you don't have to remake it." Said Mob. Sometimes mom did that, if something she cooked didn't turn out right.

"No, I meant…if you wanted to have dinner with me again." Said Serizawa. Mob looked at him for a while.

"If you mean that you want to make more food because you don't think that this will be enough then you can. If you meant me coming over again for dinner I could do that." Said Mob. She texted mom that she would be having dinner with a friend and she said alright so she would probably say alright again. If she and Serizawa were going to be…whatever they were….then she should spend time with him. It wasn't as if she didn't enjoy his company or anything like that.

"The second thing. I like it…when you're here. I like being with you. I was kind of sad when I woke up this morning. I missed you…Mob." Said Serizawa watching her. Expressionless like usual.

"I'm sorry but I had to go. Ritsu was very worried. He even sent Sho out to look for me." Said Mob. Ritsu could be such a worrier sometimes. She understood that he was her brother but they weren't kids anymore. She saved the world, she could handle herself.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I forgot that you had a family. No! I mean that I knew that you had a family I just sort of forgot that you had to go home." Said Serizawa. Had he gotten her in trouble? Were they mad at her for staying out late? Did she tell them that she was with him? What was she telling people? What was he supposed to be telling people? What were they, exactly? How was he supposed to figure out-

"It's alright. Mom and dad were asleep when I got home. They don't worry too much when I'm out late. Me and Master Reigen stayed out late working sometimes before you started working there." Said Mob. Would she and Master Reigen ever had that, again? Staying out until all hours on trains and busses moving from job to job to home? Would she ever drift off with him, again? Her head on his chest? His hand on her back?

Did she even want it back?

She did.

"Oh….I'm glad that you aren't in trouble because of me." Said Serizawa. The way that she said Master Reigen…no. He was being weird. Girls didn't like it when guys were jealous. Something else he learned from anime and manga.

"Ritsu was upset though. He said that he thought that Claw, the guys who still sided with Sho's dad, got me or that I was with Master Reigen. I told him that I was with you and that I lost track of the time and he stopped freaking out as much. He shouldn't freak out, we aren't little anymore. I can take care of myself and even him if he needs it." Said Mob. Sho said that some of them were still siding with his dad and wanted revenge against her even though it was stupid, Sho had said, because she had won the battle against the president so therefore she was the strongest esper.

"I would never, ever, let something like that happen to you. You don't ever have to worry about that." Said Serizawa. He reached across the table and held her hand in his. She was someone he needed to protect. She was his girlfriend, maybe, possibly, probably, and he was the one who was supposed to keep her safe. She had saved him, she had saved everyone, but he needed to save her.

"Serizawa, I can take care of myself. I'm not a kid." Said Mob. She let him hold onto her hand for a while until he let go. He started to eat quickly. She followed suit. It was pretty good. Maybe next time she could help him. He looked up at her, occasionally, but when he met her eyes she looked down.

"…I know you aren't." said Serizawa after a few minutes. She was so pretty. He wanted to look at her, to watch her, to watch her every expression and non-expression. She was almost done, so was he. What after? Would she just go home? Did she want to hang out? Did she…? Not that he would ask. Not that he would push her. He just wanted to be near her. To hold her close.

"Huh?" asked Mob as he finally said something. She didn't really have anything to say but should she have been saying something? What was she supposed to say?

"What you said before. I know you aren't." said Serizawa. She most certainly was not. He looked away from her. Don't think about it. Don't think about her like that.

"Thank you, Serizawa." Said Mob. They ate in, what was for a Mob, a comfortable silence. She didn't have anything to say so she wouldn't say anything. If Serizawa wanted to say something he would. He was quiet, like her. Nothing like Master Reigen. He talked almost all the time. Mob didn't have to think of what to say because Master Reigen could keep up both sides of the conversation by himself.

"Here, I'll take that for you." Said Serizawa just as she finished. He needed a minute, just a minute. A minute to stop thinking about her. About how soft her skin felt. About the way her fingers felt as they dug into his back. The way she made those little whimpering noises and squirmed…because of **him**. He washed their plates and tried to focus solely on what he was doing. Not her. Not here out there and still there and watching TV from what it sounded like.

Mob hopped onto his bed and turned on the TV after he left. She wasn't really watching. She knew this show, vaguely. It was kind of interesting but she wasn't interested. She crossed her legs and rested her elbows on her knees. She rested her head in her hands and stare straight at the wall. There was a shelf covered in tiny models. She spotted a few more EVAs. Those were from the rebuild movies. They were ok but the money would have been better spent making a proper sequel series. A double length one, twenty four or so episodes. That is if they really wanted Shinji and Asuka to reject instrumentality then they could do a whole series around that. She would have gladly accepted instrumentality. A life where she could understand everyone and everyone would understand you. A life without lies or pretext or worrying about who you were supposed to be and what you were supposed to do. To have no boundaries at all between herself and the person she loved.

Not that she would ever have instrumentality.

She thought that sex would at least be something close. It had mostly felt weird, the act of it. Not painful but not that pleasurable either. Kind of awkward. She hadn't even finished even though she was so **close.** Maybe it would have been better with Master Reigen, actually with him and not in her mind.

But that would never happen.

And Serizawa tried really hard. An attempt was made. It wasn't like Master Reigen would ever do anything like that with her. She should just make the best out of what she had. Maybe she could never try…again. She was on his bed after all…and some of it had been good…

Maybe she could forget. Maybe she could forget what she wanted and enjoy what she had.

"Oh…" said Serizawa as he finally, finally collected himself. She was sitting on his bed. She was sitting there on his bed watching TV. Just like…maybe it was nothing. Maybe she was just watching TV.

"You can change it if you want. I'm not really invested in this." Said Mob. She was still watching, though, when she felt the bed shift. Oh. He was sitting next to her. She felt his aura against hers. Hers met his and for a little but they just sort of sat on each other. He was sitting kind of close to her. The DMZ of space between them was back. Mob wondered if she should close it. She shifted a little.

It hadn't been that bad…

Some of it had been good…

"I'm sorry!" said Serizawa suddenly. He was sorry for telling her he loved her. He was sorry that she had been upset the other day and he still didn't know why or how to fix it. He was sorry for thinking about her so much. He was sorry for thinking about her in that way. He was sorry for being sorry for thinking about her in the way. He was sorry for being sorry for being sorry. He was sorry for being sorry for being sorry for being sorry for being-

"For what?" asked Mob. To her knowledge he hadn't done anything wrong. She went over their day. Yeah, nothing that she found objectionable.

"For telling you that…that I loved you. I mean, I know that it was too soon, and that I might have scared you….so I'm sorry." Said Serizawa. He didn't want to start this off wrong. He couldn't believe that he had messed up that badly. On TV and in books people said it really fast but this was in real life and there were so many rules and expectations to this and he had almost zero idea of what he was supposed to **do** because he had never done this before and-

"No. Never apologize for telling someone that you love them." Said Mob. She would not make him feel the way that Master Reigen had made her feel. That was the worst feeling in the entire world.

"But I-" said Serizawa. But he had made a mistake and maybe even made her feel bad. He needed to apologize if he had done something wrong. He needed to start this off right, whatever it was.

"Serizawa. No. Don't ever say sorry for saying 'I love you.'" Said Mob. She would not make him feel like that. She would never make another person feel like that. She would never be able to live with herself, or the other herself, if she did something like that.

"Ok. I won't apologize if it upsets you." Said Serizawa. So that meant that she did love him back, right? He had literally no idea but he didn't want to say or do something dumb. He should do some research later. There had to be some kind of guide to this. Well, he could always ask Master Reigen. He knew a lot about women and he knew a lot about Mob, too. They were friends for years before he had met either of them.

"Good. You shouldn't feel bad about the way you feel." Said Mob. She turned to look at him. He was looking at her. She could feel him, almost. The warmth of him. He was so warm and nice and **there**. He was there and she was there and they were there together.

"How do you feel? Right now, I mean." Asked Serizawa. Their auras were trying to merge, he could tell. Maybe that was him, maybe it was her, maybe it was both of them. She was unreadable as usual. He wished that she would smile or frown or something, anything to give some indication of how she felt. Maybe just asking would always work best with her.

"Full." Said Mob. She was comfortably full, she decided. Not too full but not super hungry either.

"That's all?" asked Serizawa. Was it ok to…ask? They had already, before. That was only yesterday, though. Could he ask her again? Or maybe just to hold her. In some ways holding her afterwards had been just as good as, if not better, than when they had actually had sex. Less worry, no worry actually. No worry about if he was doing it right or if he was measuring up to whoever had been with her…before. She must have been. She had kissed someone before and she seemed to know what she was doing. Or maybe it was always just amazing.

"I'm comfortable. Your bed is very nice." Said Mob. She leaned over into him. He was comfortable too. Would Master Reigen's bed be as comfortable as his was? What was his room like? Probably full of plants, he loved plants. Probably full of books, too, and maybe bags upon bags of salt. Yeah, every night before bed he carefully filled each and every one of the pockets in his suit with salt for the next work day. Not that the salt ever worked.

Maybe it would. Maybe if she buried herself in salt she could exorcism the emotions she felt for him. Maybe then if she could get this to quit she could finally be happy.

"…I'm comfortable, too." Said Serizawa. He tentatively put an arm around her. Slowly, as if she would break. She leaned closer to him, the DMZ crossed. War now? Or peace? Armistice? Cease fire? But for what battle? The one brewing inside of her.

One part of her wanted Master Reigen more than anyone else in the world.

The other part knew that it could never be.

One side just wouldn't quit.

The other side just wouldn't stop being logical and reasonable.

Mob thought too much, she decided. Or maybe she didn't think enough. She'd have to think about it some more to come to a proper conclusion. Maybe there was nothing even to think about. Maybe she should just do what she wanted. But what did she want? A great many things, she decided, she wanted a great many things.

Love.

Sex.

Security.

Kindness.

Caring.

Understanding.

Sex.

Love.

She needed more than sex to nourish her relationship, but she did need sex.

She also needed love, caring, devotion, understanding, and acceptance. He saturated her with all of the above.

So then was this alright?

What was wrong with her that she thought about it so much? That she wanted to so much. They said, at school, that it was part of becoming an adult but adults didn't think about it nearly as much as she did. Not that she wasn't an adult, she was, she totally was. She was an adult and adults thought about this. Just…she spent a lot of her time thinking about it. She didn't think anyone else did. Her parents certainly didn't. Her little brother most definitely never, ever, thought about this.

Maybe it was just another thing wrong with her.

But would it be wrong if…if he wanted to, too? At least someone wanted to be with her. At least someone loved her.

They stayed like that for a little while. Her leaning onto him, him leaning onto her. As one show bled into the next she had eased herself into a laying position. Her head was on his thigh, her feet dangling over the side of the bed. She felt tall, then. So tall that she didn't even fit even though she knew that she was laying down in the middle of the bed. She let her feet dangle. Would she be able to do this in Master Reigen's bed? Or was his bed against a wall? Or did he sleep on a futon? She always imagined him having a big, comfy, bed. One that could easily fit the two of them. Was it covered in salt, too? Was his entire house just covered in salt and every morning he gathered it up, put it in his pockets, and started the day? She smiled a little, just a little. Her aura betrayed much more than her face ever did.

Serizawa could feel her happiness. Their auras had merged sort of. Could she feel his anxiety? He was anxious, but not very much. He was safe with her. She cared for him and understood him in a way that nobody else ever could. She cared for him enough to share herself with him after all. He scooted back towards the wall and laid down. He just wanted to hold her again, that was all. Just to hold her and make sure that she was real and that this wasn't just some good dream that he was going to end up waking up from.

Mob laid down next to him. Did he want to? Did she want to? Well, physically she did. It was like she was one of those fish who tasted one drop of blood and then ate an entire person in seconds. Or maybe that had just been in the movies. What was it with Sho and Teru and scary movies? Everyone knew that the best movies were made based on existing animes. That way you could get a full story from the abridgment and you could decide if you liked the story well enough to watch the anime. What would she do if she was in an anime movie? What kind of movie would this even be?

She was kind of like a magical girl, sort of. She saved the world and had psychic powers but they weren't magical and she didn't have a cool costume or a funny animal sidekick but she did wear a school uniform, even though they made her wear that uniform, and she did use her powers for good. So this would be some kind of shoujo magical girl anime.

Or maybe romantic comedy. Wait, no, nothing funny had happened. A romantic drama then. She was rejected by the man she loved most in the world so she decided to move on and now she was with Serizawa and stuff and she would be happy because he cared about her and stuff and she was going to make the most of this and then she would be happy again and this painful, aching, raw feeling inside of her where her heart used to be would finally go away.

She scooted as close to Serizawa as she could. There it was. The painful, aching, raw feeling in her chest. Like when she coughed too hard and her throat got all raw or when she bit down on her tongue while she ate. It just wouldn't quit. She needed to erase it, exorcise it, and banish it from herself once and for all because she was not going to live like this! She was not going to live with this pain for the rest of her life.

"Serizawa?" asked Mob

"Mob?" asked Serizawa. Her aura was being weird. Kind of spiky, like something was bothering her. But what? The same thing as yesterday? Or something new? And why didn't she tell him? He didn't know what it was but he knew that it was his job to help her with it. It was his job to fix it.

"How do you feel?" asked Mob. How was he feeling right then and there? Squished, probably, but what else? Did he want her to be that close? What did he want? What did she want? What did anyone want?

"Happy but worried." Said Serizawa. He was so happy to be near her again, to be able to see her and hear her and smell her and just to have proof that, yes, this was real and she wanted to be with him. Her aura, though, worried him.

"About what? I can help you. Do you need your umbrella?" asked Mob. She wouldn't trade her explosions with Serizawa for anything in the world, and not just because she didn't want him to have to deal with another him living in his mind, under his skin. No. She also didn't want her explosions to come from the fear that he felt. He was afraid of a lot of things, most of them people related. She was afraid of messing up with people but she wasn't afraid of people. He wasn't afraid of her, though, and that was wonderful.

"No, I don't need it. I'm just worried about you. Your aura is being kind of weird." Said Serizawa. Lots of bumps in her road. Ups and downs in her aura that he saw no cause for.

"Oh…it's just because I just can't stop thinking." Said Mob

"About what?" asked Serizawa. Was she upset with him? Did she want to go? Did she want to go and never come back or talk to him again and then he'd be all alone again and he didn't know what he'd do or how he'd go to work or even leave this room and-

"It's nothing." Said Mob. It really was. She had been rejected by Master Reigen. That had been yesterday. This was today. Today was a different day entirely.

"If it truly was nothing then it wouldn't be bothering you. Please tell me. I lo-I care about you and I want you to be happy." Said Serizawa

"It's nothing that I want to talk about." Said Mob

"Is it the same thing from yesterday?" asked Serizawa

"…yes…" said Mob

"Maybe I can help you. You don't have to go through this alone." Said Serizawa

"But you have helped me." Said Mob. She had felt better, last night, even though she had been imagining Master Reigen the whole time. Maybe it would feel nice this time, too.

"How?" asked Serizawa. As far as he knew he hadn't done anything, really. He just spent time with her and made her dinner and now he was laying down with her.

"You make me feel better. When you talk to be I feel better. When you're near me I feel better. When you touch me I feel better." Said Mob. Her back had been to him but she turned to face him. they were close, nose to nose. He reached over and brushed some of her hair from her face before letting his hand linger on her rose colored cheek.

"I…I want to make you feel better." Said Serizawa trembling just a little. She was so close, so incredibly close. She had been this close yesterday, too. She had been this close and it would be so easy to close the gap between them….

"Then make me feel better." Said Mob. Before she knew it he was kissing her. He was on target at least, which was good. He didn't move. He didn't touch her. He just kissed her. Closed mouth. Soft. Impossibly loving.

Mob kissed him back as best she could.

"Do you feel better?" asked Serizawa. He didn't want to push her to anything. Maybe it would be best if he just waited for her to ask him. If he pushed her, and he probably would without even realizing it, then she might get upset and leave.

"….almost." said Mob. She leaned in and kissed him this time. She was on target too, which was good, but she moved, unlike him. Mouth to mouth. Tongue to tongue. Skin to skin. It was warm and wet and nice and there and it didn't put out the fire inside of her. It was like the time mom's tempura pot caught fire. Water just made it worse. It was getting worse but she didn't care. This was a wonderful way to burn, Mob decided. She heard something crash in the kitchen and tried to sit up. Serizawa held onto the back of her head. She could only pull away a little bit.

"Don't worry. You won't break anything." Said Serizawa. She was worried about breaking something. He worried, too. That was why everything was bolted down or glued down or reinforced with his own energy. Even the cabinets were latched shut for those times when he lost control and everything inside shattered or flew out.

"I will. I always do." Said Mob as she hovered above him. His hand was in her hair. She leaned into it. He twisted his fingers slowly into her hair. She felt her toes curling into her socks. The room shuddered but nothing broke.

"You won't. I'll make sure you don't." said Serizawa. He let his fingers explore her hair. She had so much of it! And it was so soft! He always wondered that about girls, how it felt to have such long hair. It always looked so soft, too, but hers especially. It was soft and thick and he could just spend hours and hours touching it because there was just so much but he couldn't because then she would think that he was weird but would she because she was his girlfriend, maybe, and this was what you did with a girlfriend, right? And there was so much he didn't know and so much he wanted to know like how she got her hair so soft and how she managed to smell so **good** and other such feminine secrets that only guys with girlfriends were privy to like what lipstick tasted like and what perfume smelled like and why did she smell so, incredibly **good-**

"Do you promise?" asked Mob. She smoothed down the energy that made him up. She took it in and made it her own. He was getting worked up about something. She leaned down and kissed him again. She was getting him worked up. This was because of her, but it was happening in a good way. He wanted this with her. She pulled away, slowly. He eyes had been opened the whole time. Why did he always do that? She assumed that his eyes had been opened before, too. They would have been. He didn't have anyone else he wanted to think about…right?

"I promise. I promise you that I promise." Said Serizawa. He propped himself up and kissed her. He tried to match what she was doing but he knew that he was clumsy and artless. She was much better at this than he was. She had done this before. Not that he wanted to think about that. Not that he wanted to think about her being here with anyone else but him but she could so easily find someone else, someone better. She could easily get someone like Reigen but he knew that he was being ridiculous. If she wanted some like Reigen then she would be with someone like Reigen. She wanted to be with him, that's why she was back in his home and on his bed and maybe she even wanted to…again…and wouldn't that just be wonderful but not really because then she would leave again while he was asleep and he'd wake up without her and then he'd have to go outside and it was big out there and he wouldn't have her there beside him but he had to go because outside was where she would be and he **had** to see her because he loved her so much and she was just so perfect and so wonderful and not just because of sex but because she understood him so well and because-

"Serizawa, you're on my hair." Said Mob as she tried to tug her hair free. He sat up quickly and she moved her hair away. It was all around her now, like a halo. He reached a shaking hand down and felt, gently, the silky black tresses that surrounded her. Angel. She was an angel. She was his angel. She had saved him in every way a person could be saved and now she was there, with him, and no one else.

"You're perfect….you're so perfect." Said Serizawa as he moved down and rested his hand against the side of her face. Her eyes were opened this time. He liked it better this way. Her eyes were so bright, so brown. Her face was so red, too. Not embarrassed but a dusting of red, like she was wearing that red stuff that girls wore sometimes. He dragged the pad of his thumb across her cheek. Nope, that was real. She was so warm. Inside and out.

"Serizawa…." Said Mob. She reached up and held onto his wrist. Her fingers could barely span the diameter of it. He was so big and warm and there and she was very small and she felt all cold on the inside but she was also there. She brought his wrist down to her lips and kissed it. She could feel his heartbeat, and he didn't even say a single word. She could hear him. He liked to be heard. So did she. He heard her. No matter what she said he heard her. He never dismissed her. He never said that she was too young. He had never told her that she was too young to know what she wanted or what was good for her. He was hearing what right. She loved to be heard.

"Mob…" said Serizawa. He leaned over her and kissed her. Deep but slow. He didn't move as much as he did. He explored her, took stock of her. The inside of her mouth tasted like ketchup, he decided. He always imagined her tasting like candy, for some reason. Because she was small and sweet and there. She was always so sweet to him. Whenever he got worried or anxious she would be there. She'd have him his umbrella and tell him something like 'It's ok, Serizawa. You'll be ok.' But never anything like 'You're being ridiculous' and 'just stop being afraid already'. No, she always understood him. She was always there and she understood him.

"Please. Serizawa, please. It's ok, Serizawa. You'll be ok. We'll be ok." Said Mob when they broke apart for air. There was a layer of drool hanging there between the two of them. She didn't bat it away this time. It would be ok. He would be ok. They would be ok. She scooted over and wrapped on her of legs around his. She let one of her hands rest on his back, the other in his hair. He smelled nice. Not just like he had before but something else. Something more…him. Very him. Thick and kind of heavy but nice, almost like incense. Almost like incense and cigarettes. Almost.

She closed her eyes and kissed him. She kissed whatever skin she could get near. His mouth, his face, his arm, his wrist, and that place right at the side of his neck that made him groan and push down against her. She kissed him there, slowly at first and then harder and harder until she was biting him. He begged her and begged her to keep going. He told her that she was amazing. That she was perfect. That he wanted this with her so badly. At some point he had wound up laying completely parallel to her. Each of her legs rested on either side of him. Now one was around him, pulling him closer. Her uniform shift was trying to fly up over her head? She let it and the rest of her layers. He busied himself kissing her again. Deeper and slower. She picked up the pace. Too slow.

She kissed him, now, deeply. Where he had taken stock of her, explored her slowly like he was exploring some lost temple with only a hastily scribbled map and no plan, she explored him like she was rafting down a massive water fall. Quick and fast because at any time she could open her eyes and she would instantly capsize and tumble down the falls into the rocks below. She needed to be quick, to know every inch of him. She had either hand in his hair now, tugging, pulling. Their teeth scraped. They went off target often. At one point, she noted, that he had stopped caring about being on target. He was just tasting whatever he could of her. Like she was a Popsicle. Like she was going to **melt.**

She melted.

When he kissed his way down she felt something that she could only describe as melting. From the inside because oh! He remembered what she liked! Not exploratory this time. He didn't hold them like he was afraid that they would shatter. He didn't touch her like she was an unboiled egg. No, he was kissing her without fear, without apprehension. She tugged at his button down with her hands, his suit coat and tie having long been abandoned. She didn't try to undo the buttons, she just tugged at it with her hand because she knew that fi she used her powers she would ruin it.

"Buttons. This shirt has buttons." Said Serizawa before getting back to it. He didn't know fully what he was doing, he had no real plan for this, he just did things that made her gasp and whimper and squirm and **touch **him and pull his hair and try to undress him because oh yes! She wanted him and she was pushing herself against him and her skirt was pretty much just a belt at this point and that wasn't fair no was it because he was practically fully dressed and he needed to feel **more** of her. All of her. Inside and out.

"Why? That's a dumb way to make a shirt." Said Mob softly. She let herself melt down into the bed as he worked on the buttons with his powers. She was seeing through her mind's eye. Auras. All auras. All purple and pink and blue and spikes and dips and ebbs and flows and merry-go-rounds and rollercoasters and she needed to hold on because she could so easily lose control but he said that she wouldn't break anything but she still needed to hold on and she would hold onto him because he was **there.**

"It is." Said Serizawa quickly. It really was. His undershirt went off much faster. Fine movements were getting hard. He was splitting his focus between his powers and her pleasure. That was what she was. Power and pleasure. Unimaginable power and pleasure. Her pleasure. His pleasure. This pleasure. This pleasure he couldn't believe that he had lived so much of his life without. That he couldn't believe that she had ever wanted to give. That she was giving. Both of her legs were wrapped around him now. Well, that was a second pair of pants that would need washing but it didn't matter! She wanted this with him and he would give her whatever she wanted.

"Oh!" said Mob. One of his hands had made it's way down her side, her thigh, up her skirt, pushed her underwear to the side, and was trying to work it's way oh!

"This is ok? Right?" asked Serizawa looking up. It wasn't at all like water. He had always imagined that it would be more like water but it was sort of slimy but in a good way. There was a lot of it, too. She was enjoying this. He was making her feel like this.

"The bump thing…move up. That's the best." Said Mob as she tried to reach down and push his fingers where they needed to go. Up, just a little more. Right there. Please.

"This?" asked Serizawa as he felt his fingers meet what he thought she meant. He knew this felt good, she had kept moving him back to it last night. He thought that inside would be better for her, wouldn't it be? He had literally no idea. He had never been a girl and this was the second time he had ever been with a girl. He had imagined it so **many** times but this was better. Fantasy was all well and good but it was nothing compared to the experience of actually giving and receiving pleasure. Nobody said that it had to be real but it had to be something that you could reach out and feel.

"Yes! That!" said Mob as she arched up to him. She whimpered as he took it between two fingers and slowly dragged his way down. She gasped as he started at the top and moved his way down, this time one finger from base to peak. She cried out as he pushed down just at the end. He repeated this action again and again but each time so, incredibly, painfully, **slowly.**

"Do you like this?" asked Serizawa more to hear her say it than for confirmation. Now she was expressive. Her face, her aura, her body, her smell, everything. She had a hand around his wrist and the other digging into his bedspread. She was shaking, trembling, asking, begging. She bit her lower lip and whimpered as he got to the end. Her nails dug into his wrist and she took in a deep, shuddery breath as he started at the top again. As he got to the end he pressed down and this earned him his name. His family name but his name. She was holding his wrist place now with strength, physical strength, which he never imagine she possessed. Her other strength, the strength he knew, was grasping out at everything. Everything was secured down so it just shook the room. It came in waves, slow ones, hard ones, like the time when he was little and he stood in the ocean. He kept pressing down and moving in the up and down motion that she liked. This earned him more waves, each one hit him harder than the next. She was closing her thighs around him now. Her eyes were screwed shut, her mouth was-was open, and she was making a noise that he had never heard anyone make in life before and it was just so…perfect.

She was so perfect.

She stopped, slowly. First her breathing slowed down, then her it felt like every muscle in her body relaxed at once, then she seemed to just sink into herself. She half opened her eyes. He met hers. Her eyes were glassy and far away. She didn't seem like she was focused on anything. Her hair, which had been floating around her like a halo, now lay around her seemingly as limp and heavy and boneless as the rest of her. He kept going and she, limply, pushed his hand away.

"It's not good right after. Too sensitive. Give me a couple minutes." Said Mob breathlessly. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. He had more than made up for stopping too soon yesterday. Much more than. She focused on her breathing. He had stopped touching her, good. It took her a few minutes to reset afterwards, not that she ever got a chance to more than once. It wasn't that often that she was left alone. It was better, though, when someone else did it. Better than being alone in her while everyone was downstairs and trying to be quiet and to keep her powers quiet or everyone would know what she was doing and that could **not** happen. Her powers. Huh. She really hadn't broken anything. Serizawa was wonderful.

He was a man of his word.

"Mob…Mob can we…again?" asked Serizawa. She looked so perfect there. So happy. He had made her feel like that. Him. Nobody else. He wondered if he could make her feel like that again. Girls could finish a bunch of times, right? Or was that just fiction? She had said to give her a couple minutes. So it back to back for girls, then. He knew that it wasn't for him, not since he had been younger.

"You mean sex?" asked Mob. He was there, too. She should make it good for him, too, but she had no idea how to do for him what he had done for her. No clue whatsoever. But he wanted them to do it again, right? She scooted her way down so she was parallel to him. She used her powers to tug at his belt. They were sort of languid, too. Almost sleepy feeling, like she had just exploded.

Well, in a way she had.

"Yes…can we?" asked Serizawa. She had said a few minutes but he had no idea how many minutes ago she had said that. One, one hundred? Time had ceased to have any meaning. The only thing that mattered, the only thing in the entire world that mattered, was her. Her there, in his bed, her skin flushed, her eyes half opened, her thigh on either side of him, her heart beating in her chest so hard the he could practically see it. Hear it. He could hear her heartbeat and she didn't even say a word. She liked to be heard.

"I said before that you didn't have to ask. That I wanted everything." Said Mob softly. She wanted this with him. She wanted everything with him. She wanted to feel him around her, on her, in her. The cold feeling in her chest was gone. He made her warm. He made her warm and she needed him to keep making her warm because otherwise the cold feeling would come back.

"That was yesterday. I just wanted to make sure-" said Serizawa because this did not seem like the place for miscommunication. Besides, he needed to know that she wanted this. That she wanted it with him. That out of everyone that she could have been there, in his bed with, she chose him. Well, maybe not his bed. Her bed. A bed. It would have been weird if people were just coming over to his apartment to have sex on his bed. Who would even do that? Shimizaki, maybe, because he just sort of appeared places whenever he wanted to and didn't seem to understand that closed doors meant nobody bother me and he got a lot of girls, too, pretty ones even though he couldn't see how pretty they were because he was blind but he could probably see how pretty Mob was because he could only see on the aural spectrum and her aura was **beautiful** and he'd probably end up taking her to bed and he'd probably be better at it then Serizawa and she could easily get someone better than him and-

"Serizawa….please." said Mob after he did that thing where he got quiet and still and his aura acted up. Why was he anxious? Second thoughts? Did he…did he change his mind…? The cold feeling was coming back.

"…sure…" said Serizawa. He kissed her, again. Slowly, this time. Not tasting her, just feeling her. She was so perfect. This was so perfect. He used his powers to slink out of his pants and boxers. Her eyes were closed again. Why? Why did she always do that? This didn't seem like the time to ask her. Then she might change her mind and he didn't want her to because she made him **ache**. He aches as he kissed her. He aches as she drew him in. He aches as he missed the first time. He aches and she used her powers to guide him. He aches the moment he makes contact with her, right there on the precipice of some wonderful, warm, slick abyss. He plunges in, no, dives, no, takes a tentative step in. just a step.

"Serizawa!" said Mob. So slow but so…good. Slow could be good. He was teasing her now, it felt like. He was just going so **slowly**. She could feel every centimeter of him. It was a slow sort of stretch, but not a painful one. An accommodation. Like sliding a wall out of place to make room for a guest, that is if you lived in a house with sliding walls. He slid against her walls. First slow, then more quickly. He put too much of his weight on her, again, and it didn't feel nearly as god as what he had been doing before, but it was worth it.

It warmed her up.

Serizawa had no idea what he was saying or doing. He just knew that this felt so good and it felt good for her and he needed to feel all of her and to make her feel all of what he had made her feel earlier. He had no real technique to it, just straight instinct. In and out. Up and down. Male and female. How had be lived so long without this? Without **her?** He had no idea how long it lasted, long enough to exhaust him, long enough for them both to end up covered in a mixture of both of the sweat, their scents, those base human scents that people were expected to cover up but not now and oh! She smelled so amazing! He had merged with her. Bodies, sights, sounds, tastes, smells, auras. Everything that made him Serizawa Kasuya and made her Mob. Everything about the two of them was merged, mixed, and it was perfect.

So perfect.

Mob had counted to sixty three that time.

That gross, slimy, slickness was back but he was pulling her close now. She could do something about it later, when the grossness became absolutely unbearable. This was nice, though, the warmth. She kept her eyes closed and listened to his heartbeat.

She had no idea what Master Reigen's felt like. Hopefully something like this.

It would be so perfect.


	6. A Growing Chasm Between Two Hearts

Reigen can feel the chasm growing between Mob and him.

It started off small. Well, not so small. It started with a confession, a kiss, and a rejection. Reigen had thought, naively, that everything would be alright the next day. She just needed to sleep on it and realize that she was, in fact, too young for him. She'd wait, they'd get together in a few years in the way they both wanted, and in the mean time they could carry on just as they had before. It was something that made sense to him. Mob was always so rational like that. They should have just gone back to normal, maybe a little more embarrassed than before but ultimately back to normal.

Things had not gone back to normal.

The first thing he noticed was that Mob stopped staring at him. She used to stare at him, sometimes, when she thought that he didn't notice. She stopped doing that. Now she looked down at her phone or manga or at Serizawa. She's been looking at Serizawa a lot.

Talking to him more, too.

Reigen was not a part of these conversations. He couldn't be because he had literally no idea what they were talking about. The first time this had happened he had come in from a smoke break and found the two of them huddled over a manga.

"_Is this a fan manga, Serizawa?"_

"_No, I think it's canonical."_

"_Oh. This must be another timeline then, one of the ones that happened after third impact."_

"_But the EVAs aren't even built yet. How can it be after third impact?"_

"_Because the third impact was the end and the beginning all in one."_

Reigen walked over to see what they were reading. It was apparently Evangelion, which he knew, set in middle school, which he was not familiar with. Mob loved EVA and before she would have been happy to explain it. When he asked he got short answers from her, which was normal, but then she went back to talking with Serizawa. She was even smiling, a little. Her real smile. Very small but so real. She was smiling for Serizawa….

Reigen hated the way that made him feel.

The more he watched them the more he realized that she had never smiled for anyone else, not the way she smiled for him. But she was giving Serizawa that smile…and Serizawa was smiling back. She gave him that smile when she came in after school. He gave her that smile back. She gave him that smile when they were out on jobs and he gave her that smile back. Sometimes Reigen even caught Serizawa smiling at her while she was otherwise occupied with something.

Reigen knew that he was being ridiculous.

He hated it, her sharing her smile with another man. Another man smiling at her. This was Serizawa, he reminded himself. He didn't count as another man. Not to be mean or anything but he was, well, harmless. Reigen still remembered him as he was when he first came to work at Spirits and Such. All poofy hair and scuttling feet. Harmless. Serizawa was harmless. He is, was, and forever would be harmless.

Reigen was just being ridiculous.

Mob still loved him. Mob would wait. That was why she was being so distant. She was just embarrassed. That was why she didn't smile at him anymore. That was why she didn't initiate conversations with him as often anymore. She was just embarrassed and uncomfortable. She was fifteen and awkward so she was trying her best to make it less awkward. Reigen told himself that.

She was not replacing him with Serizawa.

She was not going off with Serizawa almost every night after work because she was replacing him with Serizawa.

He did not come in and catch the cuddled up on the couch watching phone videos together because she was replacing him with Serizawa. He was being ridiculous when his heart stopped because his hand was on her waist or across her shoulders. He was being crazy when he saw the faint flush on her cheeks and Serizawa brushed her hair out of her face. He knew that he was hallucinating when he saw Mob, briefly, rest her hand on top of Serizawa's.

She was not intentionally starting conversations with Serizawa about things that Reigen had no idea about. They just both liked shows and manga and stuff. She would never purposely try to exclude him. They had not been trying to exclude him, either, when he came back in from a massage and found them debating whether or not a Sega Saturn game from 1997 about a long cancelled show was canonical to manga publish in 2006.

There was no way in hell that Mob was replacing him with Serizawa.

But there was a growing distance in between them. One that he needed to mend.

"Hey, Mob. Come on, let's go get some ramen just the two of us like we used to." Said Reigen as they were locking up the office to leave. Mob didn't even have to think.

"No thank you, Master. Serizawa and I have plans." Said Mob simply. Reigen didn't let any part of what he was feeling show on his face. He looked between the two of them. Serizawa couldn't meet his eyes. Mob had picked some spot right in front of herself to stare at.

"Come on, Mob. It'll be just like old times." Said Reigen. He needed to be with her, he needed to make sure that they were ok. Mob looked back at Serizawa.

"It's ok. I'll see you again tomorrow." Said Serizawa. Now Serizawa was looking between Mob and him. That was a new expression…jealousy. He was jealous that Mob was blowing HIM off for once. Not that Mob was blowing anyone off.

"…ok…" said Mob. Oh. She was being kind of…what was that? Something else he had never heard from her before. No matter. She had picked him and they were going to have a great evening together just like old times.

It was, and wasn't, like old times.

"Mob, what's been happening with you lately?" asked Reigen through a mouthful of food. At least her tolerance for his table manners, or lack thereof, hadn't changed.

"…nothing…." She said quietly. She didn't look happy. He had even gotten her all the meats in her ramen and an ice cold bottle of milk to drink.

"Come on, something must be going on in your life. What about your work-out club? Any progress?" asked Reigen

"I can do five pullups in a row now…." Said Mob

"Seriously? Well, that's four better than I can." Said Reigen

"It's not a contest. We all do a little better each time." Said Mob

"You're just saying that because you know that it's a contest you'll win." Said Reigen

"It doesn't matter. You can do things that I can't, like how you can run really fast." Said Mob

"So can you. Do you remember the time with those giant cockroaches?" asked Reigen

"Master, those were just regular cockroaches." Laughed Mob

"Nope. They were as big as my hand, at least." Said Reigen holding out his hand for measurement.

"Master, you're just afraid of bugs." Said Mob

"Well why wouldn't I be? Bugs are evil creatures, Mob." Said Reigen

"They're more afraid of you than you are of them." Said Mob

"No, that's bears." Said Reigen

"Why would bears be afraid of people?" asked Mob

"No idea, it's just something I saw on TV." Said Reigen

"You can't believe everything you see on TV, Master. One time Ritsu and I saved up all of our allowance for a month to buy a panda because we saw a buy a panda commercial on TV. Mom and dad said that it wasn't what we thought it was but we sent them the money anyway. We didn't get a panda." Said Mob

"What did you end up getting?" asked Reigen

"A toy panda and a piece of paper that said that we helped pay to feed Ping-Ping, that was the panda, and that we made her happy." Said Mob

"And here I thought you liked helping people." Said Reigen

"I do, but we just wanted a panda." Said Mob

"What were you guys even going to do with it?" asked Reigen

"It was going to spend Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in my room and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in Ritsu's room." Said Mob

"What about Sundays?" asked Reigen

"Sundays were going to be decided by a go tournament best eleven out of twenty." Said Mob

"Jeez, you guys were serious." Said Reigen with a laugh.

"We were but we were little too and we didn't know that all pandas are owned by the country of China." Said Mob

"They are?" asked Reigen

"Uh-huh. I read it on an ice pop. There's a panda fact on every single Super-Panda brand ice-pop." Said Mob

"Oh yeah, I remember you used to love those." Said Reigen

"I did but then they changed the formula and now it tastes funny." Said Mob

"It sucks when things change…" said Reigen. He reached across the table for her hand but stopped himself.

"It does." Said Mob watching his hand. If he had been Serizawa he wouldn't have hesitated. She ate some more of her ramen. He followed her lead.

"Hey…Mob?" asked Reigen after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, Master?" asked Mob hopefully. Reigen held eye contact with her.

"I missed this." Said Reigen. How long had it been? Too long. How badly had he fucked this, them, up? Too much. Well, she had played her part too. She was the one who had gone and said something in the first place. Reigen had been content to ignore the elephant in the room. Not her. She was so young, young enough to want everything and think that she could get it.

"….I did too." Said Mob. Serizawa was nice. He cared about her. He talked to her and held her and had sex with her whenever she wanted, which was often, because aside from the main event, which she could take or leave, the stuff that came before was amazing. He was better at it, now, because they had been practicing. She still thought about Master Reigen, during. Why couldn't it be the same between her and Master Reigen as it was between her and Serizawa?

"I missed you." Said Reigen. This time he did take her hand.

"I missed you too….but I see you almost every day." Said Mob letting him take her hand. She wanted to lace her fingers with his but she didn't. He didn't love her back. That was fine. She had Serizawa and he made her happy. Not as happy as Master Reigen made her but happy none the less.

"I see you too." Said Reigen. He saw her and she was there but between them there existed a new distance. He wanted to cross it but it was like he was on a treadmill. Here, though, the treadmill was off and they could finally meet.

"But we still miss each other." Said Mob stating a fact.

"Yup. We still miss each other…" said Reigen. He squeezed her hand. He missed her smiles. Her stories. The old way her presence felt, how it hung so very comfortably in the air. She was there, physically, but emotionally she was distant. She was making herself distant. She was moving away from him and…sometimes he could have sworn that she was moving towards Serizawa. But that was insane. She wasn't going to replace him. She couldn't possibly replace him. He could never replace her.

"But we won't go our separate ways." Said Mob

"Of course we won't. I know I'm not going anywhere, anyway." Said Reigen

"Neither am I." said Reigen

"When we did go our separate ways…it was awful." said Mob

"I know, I remember." Said Reigen

"I mean….I thought about you every single day…" said Mob

"I thought about you, too." Said Mob

"I…I still think about you." Said Reigen

"…..me too…" said Mob

"And I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry that I hurt you." Said Reigen

"When you rejected me?" asked Mob

"Yes….then." said Reigen

"It's ok. If you don't like me like that then you don't like me like that." Said Mob

"….I never said that…" said Reigen quietly

"You did. You told me that we couldn't be together." Said Mob

"Because you're fifteen." Said Reigen

"I still don't see why that means so much to you. I'm not a child anymore." Said Mob

"I never said that you were still a child, Mob." Said Reigen

"You said that I'm too young for you." Said Mob

"You are. You're not even in high school yet." Said Reigen

"But I'll still be me, Master, no matter how old I am. I'm still going to be me and you're still going to be you." Said Mob

"People change all the time, Mob. You're not still the same person you were when we first met." Said Reigen

"Of course not, I was eleven." Said Mob

"There. See? You changed." Said Reigen

"But you've stayed the same. You haven't aged since I met you." Said Mob

"I have too aged." Said Reigen

"Not in any big way." Said Mob

"Because I'm so much older than you. The years aren't as dramatic when you're my age." Said Reigen

"I still don't get it, though. What's the big deal? No matter how I get you'll still be fourteen years older than me." Said Mob

"Because eighteen and thirty two is a lot less creepy than fifteen and twenty nine." Said Reigen

"Why do you care so much what others think?" asked Mob

"Because I live out in the world, Mob. That's another difference between us. You're still a kid, you have room to fuck up. I don't." said Reigen. What would it do to his reputation if he went around dating middle school girls?

"So I would be a mistake, then?" asked Mob. The ramen in her bowl began to swirl into a small funnel cloud. She made the broth into a ball and drank it before it got everywhere.

"Yes. No. I don't know." Said Reigen. She was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. She had been the person to make him into a person. She had been his everything for years and now she wanted so much **more** and it would be so wonderful if he could **give** her what she wanted but for her own good he **couldn't.**

"Those answers are contradictory." Said Mob

"I know they are, I know. I just…I don't want to ruin your life. You're still so young. Mob…I can't steal your youth from you." Said Reigen

"You wouldn't be stealing my youth away, Master. Last year I thought that I wasn't making the most of my middle school years. I thought that I should have been more focused on being what I was supposed to be instead of who I wanted to be. I realize, now, that I've had the best times of my life with you." Said Mob

"But if you hadn't gotten out of your comfort zone you never would have made all the friends you have now. You never would have joined clubs or anything like that." Said Reigen

"That's true but I still don't think that being with you would steal my youth." Said Mob

"It's also…Mob you're going to get older. You're going to get older and realize that you are not an island." Said Reigen

"I'm a person." Said Mob blinking. This was a saying, wasn't it? She wasn't super great at figuring out what was a saying and what wasn't.

"Not literally an island. I meant that the choices you make don't just affect you. How do you think that your family would feel if they found out you were dating the old man you've been working for since you were eleven?" asked Reigen. He could give it a few guesses. Each one ended up with him in either the hospital, the city morgue, or in a hole in the woods.

"I…I don't know…" said Mob. That was sort of the reason why she never brought Serizawa to her house. Mom and dad would not be happy, probably, because he was so much older than her. She had thought more on what Master Reigen had told her, before, and if it looked bad then she didn't want to…to make Serizawa feel bad. Or be forbidden from seeing him. That was it. It wasn't that she wanted to avoid officially labeling herself as his girlfriend even though they hung out and had sex almost every single night.

"I think your brother would take some time out of his day to kick my ass for one thing." said Reigen. That kid had always been suspicious of him and, frankly. Reigen didn't blame him.

"I'd stop him." said Mob. She could, if it came to it, make Ritsu stop with her powers. Yes. He had a tendency to get violent when pushed and he really, really, didn't like Master Reigen for some reason.

"You can't watch him twenty four hours a day." Said Reigen

"Yes I can. I can follow him around and then maybe even tie us together so he can't slip away when I go to sleep." Said Mob

"….wasn't that from a movie?" asked Reigen

"Yes." said Mob

"Wasn't that a horror movie?" asked Reigen

"Yes." said Mob again. Well, Teru had called it a thriller. Ritsu had called it boring. Sho had called it dumb. He said that it needed more blood and gore and people getting their insides pulled out. Sho was weird, sometimes.

"Wasn't that a horror movie about a deranged stalker?" asked Reigen

"Yes." said Mob

"….so you want to do to your brother what a fictional, deranged, stalker did to his victim?" asked Reigen slowly. Mob blinked.

"When you say it like that it sounds bad, Master." Said Mob. She wouldn't do it in a crazy way, she would just do it in a 'Ritsu can be kind of a jerk sometimes' way.

"…because it is. Mob, don't stalk people." Said Reigen with a sigh. Yup, another way Mob was young. She didn't ever quite think her actions through.

"Why not?" asked Mob. She knew that sometimes Ritsu followed her to work and stuff to keep her safe. He was kind of weird since the whole facing off against Claw for the second time thing. He sometimes sent Sho, too, because he move faster and turn invisible. He could mess with the refraction of the light but not his aura. Mob had even felt him outside of Serizawa's apartment, sometimes. Thank goodness he had curtains….

"….because it's wrong…." Said Reigen slowly. Mob, if she ever got it in her head to do something bad, was unstoppable. Thank God she had been such a good person up to this point. Thank God that he had taught her to be such a good person up to this point. Another way in which she was too young for him. They still had that sort of relationship. She was still the student and he was still the Master. If she were older then they could be equals but right now it just could not be.

"But Ritsu has Sho stalk me sometimes." Said Mob. She had a pretty good range. Sometimes when she was out on her own or with Serizawa she could feel them. That was why she didn't kiss Serizawa when they were out in public even though he tried to kiss her a lot. He liked it when they kissed. He liked to hold her and kiss her and stuff like that. Couple stuff.

"What….." said Reigen blinking, Ritsu could easily take the award for the most overprotective little brother in all of Japan. What was there even to follow Mob around for? She went to work, she went to school, and she hung out with her friends. Riveting.

"Sometimes I can sense them and sometimes I can just sense Ritsu but I know that they're there. I think Ritsu is just trying to keep me safe or something, He worries about me a lot like that. Sho just does what Ritsu wants because he likes him." said Mob

"What are you even doing to make them want to spy?" asked Reigen. To his surprise Mob blushed.

"….nothing that's their business…" muttered Mob

"But you are doing…something?" asked Reigen. He kept his breathing in check. Was Mob…seeing someone? No…she couldn't…..she was…well she wasn't his now was she?

"I do a lot of things. Sometimes I go to the manga store, sometimes I go to the convenience store, sometimes I got to the plastic model store…." Said Mob. She went to all of those places with Serizawa. Sometimes they went for a specific reason, sometimes they just went to walk around and be around people. Serizawa would walk with the two of them under his umbrella even if it wasn't raining, it made him feel better. There were a lot of people in the world and sometimes it was all too much for him. Mob would protect him even though he was strong enough, strong enough in the real way, to keep safe. He didn't think that he was strong though even though he was.

"Oh. You were with Serizawa." Said Reigen with relief. Serizawa was harmless. For a moment he thought that she had opened her eyes to other guys. Guys her own age. Nope, still Mob. Still his Mob and his alone.

"…yes…" said Mob. She was with Serizawa a lot, she knew that she was, but he needed her. He needed to be with her because she made him better than he was, he had said once. It was after they had been together again. The sun was making long shadows in his apartment. The TV was off. She was laying there in his arms. Sometimes he told her things, afterwards. He held her close and spoke so quickly, like he was on a timer or something. He told her how precious she was to him. He told her how he had wasted so much of his life before he met her. He told her how she made him a better man. He told her how much he loved her and how he would always love her….

"You guys are getting to be good friends, huh?" asked Reigen. Serizawa was closer to her age, mentally, because he had been her age when he decided to lock himself away from the world. He had locked himself away at twelve and only spent three years out in the world, if following that maniac Suzuki around counted as being out in the world, so in a lot of ways he was like a fifteen year old. Same taste in shows and stories, same self-conscious nervousness, same desire to prove himself, to be better than he thought that he was.

"Yes. We're friends." Said Mob. She couldn't tell Master Reigen about what she had started. If he knew how dumb she had been. Hoe she had thrown herself into Serizawa's arms because she needed someone, anyone, to love her. How he could make her, sometimes, scream like a banshee without her even meaning to. How good it felt, now, parts of it. How good it felt to be heard by him. How good it felt to know that somebody in the world loved her and was honest with her. He was a nice person and he cared about her.

"You know, Mob, we can all be friends." Said Reigen. How was he supposed to say this? Mob, stop excluding me. Take me on these trips to the model store. Take me to where it is you two go after work and let me back into your world. We're worlds apart, now, and I don't like it. I want to be with you more than anything else in the world and the thought of you with another man, even Serizawa, makes me want to cover myself in banishing salt.

"We are all friends, Master." Said Mob. They hung out at the office most afternoons. Master Reigen even joined in on their talks, sometimes. Right now she was on kind of an EVA obsession. She had only seen the show and the three movies. Mom didn't like her watching boy stuff like that so she had no idea how many spinoff games and manga there even were. She had just discovered the manga for the Shinji raising game. Serizawa knew a lot about this stuff. He didn't have much else to do having been locked in his room for fifteen years with only the glowing screens of the TV and the computer for company.

"I mean…Mob…it feels like you two are purposely excluding me, alright? When you two get so into that show you guys like…." Said Reigen

"Neon Genesis Evangelion?" asked Mob

"Yes, that. I can't follow most of what you guys talk about and when I do ask you about it you give me such short answers." Said Reigen

"I give you short answers because you ask simple questions, Master. I didn't know that you had never seen it. I'll explain it better." Said Mob

"No, Mob, I'm half Japanese. Of course I've seen it. I just….I'm not as into this sort of thing as you two are." Said Reigen

"If you want me to explain about it more, Master, you only have to ask." Said Mob. She hadn't meant to exclude Master Reigen, not at all, she just liked talking about EVA. If they were talking about EVA then they weren't talking about couple stuff. Stuff like meeting his mother. Stuff like him meeting her parents. Stuff like them going out on dates at couple's places. Stuff like what kind of chocolate she wanted for white day. Stuff like why she kept pulling away when he tried to kiss her even if they weren't at work. Stuff like why she never stayed the whole night, not even on weekends when she didn't have school.

It was so much easier to try and see how the EVA timelines worked. They had gotten up to thirty seven loosely connected timelines based on shows, movies, mangas, games, and advertisements.

It was easier to do that than call him her boyfriend.

"You're right. I should make more of an effort for you…you two." Said Reigen. He was acting like he was fifteen, not her. Serizawa was a guy who had locked himself away from the world for a decade and a half, of course he would be closer with someone his own mental age than someone his chronological age. Reigen needed to stop being weirdly jealous. Mob needed all the friends she could get, too. She was a social creature even though she didn't look it. He worried about stealing her youth away if he went along with her mad idea of being a couple but he was stealing her youth now, wasn't he, by making it seem like it was weird between her and Serizawa.

As if there could be anything going on between Mob and Serizawa.

He had a girlfriend, anyway. Some mysterious woman who had captured his attention. Reigen could see the dreamy looks he could get sometimes. The way he was sometimes glued to his phone when she took the time out of her day, she was some kind of student apparently, to text him. The books he would catch Serizawa reading about relationships, intimacy, and the female mind. The questions Serizawa would ask him, such basic questions….

"_Master Reigen, when should I introduce her to my mother?" _Wait at least a year or you'll scare her off. Or ask her if she feels comfortable now.

"_Master Reigen, what does it mean when she says that she's fine?" _When a woman says that she's fine then she is most certainly not fine.

"_Master Reigen, sometimes I try to hold her hand or kiss her in public but she pulls away. Does that mean that I did something wrong?" _A lot of people don't like public displays of affection. You've been watching too much TV. People don't kiss in public that often.

"_Master Reigen, why won't she ever stay the night with me? Even when she doesn't have school in the morning?" _Well it's only been a couple weeks. Give her time. Also she might have other things going on in her life. Don't look too needy, they don't like that.

And so on and so forth.

In Reigen's opinion, not that he would ever voice this particular opinion, Serizawa's girlfriend sounded too young for him. Wasn't that ironic? His girlfriend was a student so somewhere in her early twenties. What a woman at that age wanted was different than what a man his age wanted. Especially a man with no experience with the opposite sex besides what he saw on a screen.

Hopefully this girl came around soon. Serizawa deserved someone in his life who loved him.

"I, we, really didn't mean to exclude you, Master." Said Mob. Maybe she hadn't wanted to talk to him. Maybe talking to him made her heart hurt, sometimes. Maybe she didn't like talking to him and Serizawa at the same time. Maybe she didn't like to be reminded of what she wanted, what she couldn't have, and what she did have.

"I know you didn't. God, what was I thinking? You're Mob, you could never do something like that. I'm just…I'm glad that we're ok. Are we ok, Mob?" asked Reigen. Mob didn't have a mean bone in her body. She was just somewhat socially awkward. She and Serizawa both were. He just had to be more understanding of the two of them. They were friends who liked to nerd out about a show that spoke to them, or at least Mob. She had said it before that she felt like the main character. Reigen thought of her more as the blue haired girl. Quiet, soft spoken, and doll like.

"We're ok, Master." Said Mob. They were just ok. He wasn't hers in the way that she wanted and she…she had to be ok with that. She had to be ok with that because what she wanted could never be, She just…she had Serizawa.

She had someone who loved her and that was all she could ever want.


	7. Two Hearts in Like

Ritsu was not stalking his sister, no matter what Sho thought. No, he was just making sure that she was safe. The thing was, even though she could life skyscrapers she still needed her little brother to keep her safe. She was powerful but she was still really nice and naïve about stuff.

Like guys.

Ritsu knew the measure of the Reigen guy. The way he would look at Shigeko. The way he would sometimes touch her hair or put an arm around her shoulders or rest his hand on the small of her back when he thought nobody was looking. Ritsu knew exactly what Reigen wanted from his big sister.

Well Reigen wasn't going to take advantage of Shigeko like that. Not on Ritsu's watch!

"We've been watching this guy smoke for half an hour, can we PLEASE go somewhere else?" asked Sho. They were sitting on the roof of the building across from Reigen's place and watching Reigen smoke and watch TV. It was truly the most boring night that anybody had ever had in their entire lives. Sho's skin was going to rot off from the boredom of it all and then he'd be a skeleton and he could only come out around Halloween time because otherwise people would be scared of his grotesque appearance and then he'd hide in an opera house and Ritsu would get a job there and then Sho could swoop down on a rope and-

"I thought she'd be here. She wasn't at Serizawa's…nobody's at Serizawa's…." muttered Ritsu as he watched Reigen start his third cigarette.

"Maybe she's out with her other friends doing, I don't know, something FUN?" asked Sho

"Sister doesn't do fun things. Not the things that you think are fun, anyway." Said Ritsu. His sister wouldn't want to go out to the woods and destroy the ruins of the 7th division headquarters. She wouldn't want to go flying into the stratosphere and seeing who could last the longest before the cold and thin air got to them. She wouldn't want to turn invisible and scare pigeons. No, he and Shigeko didn't do those things for fun, back when they hung out.

They used to play games like go together. They played videogames, too, mostly Mario Kart and it was fun even though she always let him win. They used to hang out and talk all night about anything and everything. Then she met Reigen and little by little she replaced him. Now she didn't even come home until really late. She used to be out with Reigen almost every night but now she was hanging out with Serizawa a lot.

Probably Reigen afterwards. That would explain why she was out so late.

Who knew what lies Reigen had told her. That he loved her? That it wasn't weird that he was almost forty, Ritsu guessed, and she was only a kid? That he would always be there for her and take care of her? Well Ritsu wouldn't just let the old con man take advantage of his big sister.

"Well anything's more fun than this." Muttered Sho as he threw himself back and laid down on the concrete of the roof. Ritsu was weird when it came to his big sis. So what if she was into Reigen? It wasn't like he could make her do anything that she didn't want to. She had beat dad after all.

"It's not supposed to be fun. I'm keeping my sister safe." Said Ritsu

"By watching Reigen smoke and watch TV?" asked Sho

"By making sure that sister isn't coming over here tonight." Said Ritsu

"What's your plan if she does show up?" asked Sho

"Convince her to come home and stop seeing Reigen forever." Said Ritsu

"Why not just solve world hunger, invent a diet soda that doesn't make my head hurt after I drink it, and fix the flavor of Super-Panda iced pops while you're at it?" asked Sho with a laugh.

"Shut-up. If you don't want to be here then go." Said Ritsu

"No, I want to be here. I want to be anywhere you are." Said Sho reaching over and taking Ritsu's hand. Ritsu blushed and for the first time in half an hour stopped his vigil over Reigen Arataka's efficiency apartment.

"Stop it." Said Ritsu. This was serious. He couldn't let his guard down for even a moment. Not even for the guy that was kind of sort of his boyfriend.

"I'm not doing anything." Said Sho as he let go of Ritsu's hand and reached over to the hem of his hoodie. Ritsu held it down with his powers.

"Yes you are. Not here, Sho!" said Ritsu. They had to be discreet because there were other apartment buildings around and if Ritsu dropped his guard then someone could see him and Sho and then he'd get in trouble for peeping in people's windows and trespassing and then his parents would get called and they'd want to know what he and Sho were doing in the middle of the night together on a roof in the not so good neighborhood.

And they didn't even know about Sho yet.

"Then where? Come on, I'm bored! It's not like we're going to bang or anything." Said Sho

"Shut-up!" said Ritsu pulling his hoodie up over his face. He was on a mission. He could not afford to be distracted.

"You didn't answer the question." Said Sho in a sing song voice

"My parents are going out of town this weekend for their wedding anniversary, so then, ok?" said Ritsu with his head still in his hoodie.

"Promise?" asked Sho

"I promise." Said Ritsu

"Cross your heart, hope to die, stick someone else's eye in your eye?" asked Sho

"Disgusting. How do you come up with this stuff?" asked Ritsu trying to hide a laugh.

"My own poetic genius." Said Sho

"Fine, all of that stuff." Said Ritsu. Sho scooted over to him. He pulled down Ritsu's hoodie and stared at him. He did his best Ritsu's big sis impression.

"And you'll stop stalking your sister, at least for then?" asked Sho

"I'm not stalking her!" said Ritsu a little too loudly.

"You keep on following her around all the time. What do you call it? I call it that stupid movie Hanazawa made us all watch." Said Sho

"I'm just worried about her, ok? I mean…I don't trust Reigen." Said Ritsu

"Why? He's an ok guy." Said Sho

"Because of how he is with her. I know that he's just going to keep on using her and using her and I think she likes him so of course he's going to-" said Ritsu

"Try and bang her?" asked Sho. Ritsu shoved him.

"Don't say it like that!" said Ritsu in a harsh whisper. The thought of his sister like that with any guy made him want to throw up. She was his sister and he did not need to think about her wanting to do stuff like that. Besides, she didn't. She wasn't that kind of person. She liked TV and manga and cute things, not stuff like that. She was too trusting though and even though she wouldn't want to do that stuff on her own she could be tricked into it. Ritsu had to keep her from getting tricked.

"What? Bang? People bang, it's what they do. Dogs do it, cats do, even birds and bees do it. Why they do it together I have no idea. You'd think that they wouldn't want to, being separate species. I don't know, I'm not a biologist. People only bang other people, though. You seriously think Reigen's banging your sister?" asked Sho shaking his head. No way. Reigen wasn't that kind of guy. If he wanted to he would have done it already, anyway.

"…if he is I'll kill him…" said Ritsu. That was the only thing he could do. Kill Reigen and then bury his body in the backyard…or maybe just beat him up really badly and run him out of town.

"Kill Serizawa, then." Said Sho half kidding. He knew that Ritsu's big sis was spending a metric shit-ton of time with the guy. Ritsu thought that she was staying with Serizawa as a cover because she hated to lie so that when he asked where she had been she could tell the truth but omit the fact that she had been with Reigen.

"….he wouldn't…" said Ritsu. Serizawa looked like the kind of guy that needed stuff like that explained to him. He was harmless. He was probably just hanging out with Shigeko so that she wouldn't have to lie when she was out with Reigen.

"I'm kidding. Serizawa's harmless." Said Sho. As far as Sho knew he had never even spoken to a girl before Claw fell apart. Still Ritsu's big sis did spend a lot of time there and their auras did get kind of weird…

"Still…he is a guy…" said Ritsu. Serizawa did spend a lot of time with Shigeko. They went shopping a lot together. Sometimes they didn't even buy anything. They spent a lot of time in his apartment too. They probably just watched TV, that was what Shigeko said that they did anyway, but if she wanted to watch TV that badly she could just watch all the TV she wanted at home. Great. Now he was getting crazy. What was he even thinking? Serizawa?

"Who next? Hanazawa? Those guys from the awakening lab? The mailman? The milkman? The guy on the oatmeal box?" asked Sho

"What are you saying?" asked Ritsu

"You're being really weird with this, and this is coming from me." Said Sho

"I am not!" said Ritsu loudly. Too loudly. Crap.

"Right, there's nothing weird about this at all." Said Sho

"Will you shut-" said Ritsu before he heard a window opening, loudly. He turned his head to the side and to his horror the subject, or victim, of his vigil was sticking his head out the living room window.

"What the hell are you two doing out there?!" asked Reigen. He had seen movement across the way and thought that it might have been burglars. Nope. Just two fourteen year old idiots doing God knows what on the rooftop across from his apartment at nine o'clock at night.

"Stay low to the ground and maybe he won't see us." Said Ritsu pressing himself to the cold roof. To his horror Sho stood up.

"Hi Reigen!" said Sho with a jaunty wave. Ritsu was pulling at the leg of his pants whispering for him to get down. This was much more interesting than hiding out on a roof all night until Reigen started sad drinking.

"Hello Sho…." Said Reigen in a long suffering voice.

"How's your night going? Anything interesting on TV? Any shows you want to discuss?" asked Sho loudly. Now lights were turning on in the surrounding apartments.

"No. Now what are you and, Mob's little brother I'm guessing, doing up there?" asked Reigen

"Bird watching!" said Sho. Ritsu groaned.

"Bird watching?" asked Reigen

"Yeah. Owls and…uh…other kinds of owls." Said Sho

"Uh-huh. What are you two really doing up there?" asked Reigen. Sho thought for a moment. Why not just ask? If it was a no then it was a no and he could get his Ritsu cuddles back and if it was a yes then he could calm Ritsu down and get his Ritsu cuddles back.

"Are you trying to get with Ritsu's big sis?" asked Sho. Reigen felt his heart stop for a moment.

"No! Of course not! I'm twenty-nine years old! Where would you two even get such a crazy idea!?" asked Reigen. Was it that obvious? Was he that obvious? Or did Mob…did Mob tell anyone about what happened between the two of them? Did she….but why would she….?

"No reason, just a thought. Actually we were up here making out and stuff. We'll just leave you to your TV and smoking. Good day, sir." Said Sho with a bow and a flourish. Reigen slammed his window shut and drew his blinds so angrily that they fell off the window.

"…..I'm going to kill you." Muttered Ritsu. Well there went that mission. Of course Reigen would say no! What would he do, say yes!? Damn it Sho!

"Then I'll come back to haunt you." Said Sho. Ritsu crossed his arms and turned his back to Sho. Sho sighed and sat next to him.

"I'm sorry I ruined your whole stalk-out stake-out thing." Said Sho after a while. Right, he did that sometimes. Great….no Ritsu cuddles tonight.

"I know you are, I know." Said Ritsu running his hands through his hair. Don't get mad at Sho, that's just what he's like. That's what love, or at least liking someone a whole lot, was.

"Is this a 'Sho go away thing'? asked Sho resting his head on Ritsu's shoulder.

"This is a 'Sho I'm kind of mad at you but I still like you but I need to be by myself tonight' sort of thing." Said Ritsu. He wasn't super mad at Sho, just a little mad. Now Reigen would tell Shigeko about him following Reigen and her around and she'd be upset with him and there was nothing worse than his sister being upset with him…even though everything he did was to keep her safe.

"…but you still want to see me again tomorrow, right? And the next day and the next day and the next day?" asked Sho softly. Ritsu sighed. Sho, for all of his bravado, all of his recklessness, could be really needy sometimes.

"You know I do, Sho." Said Ritsu with a groan. Sho pulled him close, close enough that he had some trouble breathing, before jumping off the roof and vanishing. Ritsu watched the space where he was for a moment before getting back to his vigil. Oh. Reigen had pushed a bookshelf in front of his window. Ritsu checked the time. He'd better head home before mom and dad started to worry.

Reigen paced his home in worry. But what was he so worried about? He hadn't DONE anything. Well he had kissed Mob….Mob had kissed him….but it had gone no further than that. If it had…but it hadn't. It couldn't. It wouldn't.

No matter what either of them wanted.

But he had kissed her back. Instinctive. It was instinct. For a moment she hadn't been Mob, standing there all of fifteen. For a moment she had just been female and he had been male and she had been kissing him and of course he had kissed back.

But she wouldn't have said anything.

If she had then Reigen would most definitely have been dead. Her brother would have most certainly killed him instead of just hiding out on rooftops watching Reigen watch poorly written dramas and chain smoking.

Reigen clicked his phone on and considered asking her. His finger hovered over her picture, taken some months ago on a job. She was smiling for him, then, like she had before. He wanted to text her, to ask her if she had said anything. To ask her what she was up to right now. To hear about her day. To…but he doesn't.

He clicked his phone off.

He couldn't just text her like that. He couldn't fan the flames of what was burning between the two of them. He couldn't encourage it because it would just be painful. For her. For him. He was hurting, she was hurting, but the hurt would end. It would end in three short years and he needed to stop thinking about her like that until those three years were up.

Best not to fan the flames until then. Best not to confirm her brother's suspicions. Best not to get himself put six feet under. Best not to even entertain thoughts that the two of them could, now, be together in the way that they both so clearly wanted to be. He clicked his phone on again and stared down at her picture.

Mob.

Shigeko.

No. He needed to think about someone else, anyone else. Another woman? No. That never worked. He always just ended up closing his eyes and thinking of her. A friend? Did he even have any of those? He scrolled through the rest of his contacts. Heh. He could call his mother. She'd like that. Call his mother up and tell her that he was in love with a fifteen year old girl. She'd reach through the phone and pull him over to Low Back Pain City where she'd lock him in his childhood bedroom for the rest of his life.

Years and years locked in a bedroom, an apartment, an apartment which was pretty much just a big bedroom. Locked away from the world until all thoughts of Mob, his precious Mob, were banished from his mind. Heh. Maybe Serizawa could share some shut-in tips.

Hey, Serizawa was a friend. Reigen checked the time. It was late, past nine, going on ten even. Mob would probably either be home or heading home by now. She did have school in the morning. They had gone off together again after work. He had wanted to go with them but the atmosphere felt…he felt almost like he would have been a third wheel. But Mob wasn't with him now, probably. He ought to see if maybe Serizawa wanted to…

What did adults do together?

This was what happened when you only socialized with a teenage girl.

Get a drink together, maybe?

Better than drinking alone.

Or whatever.

But was it late? Was it too late? Not late for him at all but maybe Serizawa turned in early. Maybe don't open with asking him to hang out. Maybe just say hey. Maybe just text him asking what he was up to? He used to text Mob like that, before, well, everything. But would that be weird? Was he being weird by thinking so much about this? Was he overthinking it?

He was probably overthinking it.

He texted Serizawa a simple greeting and asked how his night was going. Oh. Immediate reply.

"_My night's going great. I'm on a date with my girlfriend. How's yours going?"_ Reigen felt his heart sink. Oh. Right. He had a girlfriend now. Wait, did this mean that Mob had met Serizawa's mysterious girlfriend before he did? He felt excluded again…but he shouldn't because nobody was excluding him and he was just being weird.

He tells Serizawa that his night is going great too, even though it's not, and that he just wanted to see how Serizawa was doing. Immediate reply again.

"_Can I ask your advice?"_ Ah, yup, there's Serizawa. Reigen knew how to do this, to be this person to someone. Confidence chased away the insecurity. Reigen tells him that of course he can. There's a moment, a long moment in which Reigen wonders if Serizawa's girlfriend told him to get off the phone and get back to whatever Serizawa did on a date. Build plastic models and talk about the minutia of manga? No, that was mean.

"_Arcades count as dates right?" _That was his big question? Knowing Serizawa Reigen figured that it was something like was it a good idea to propose marriage, children, and a house in the country with his girlfriend. Honestly. Way too attached too soon. Women hated that. Or maybe they didn't. Somehow Serizawa had become more romantically successful than him.

"_If you're both having fun then yeah, it's a date. Have fun, tell me how it goes." _Was what Reigen settled on. Arcades were great dates…if you were Mob's age…which Serizawa practically was. Reigen makes an effort to be happy for his only adult friend.

Just because Reigen was miserable didn't mean that everyone else had to be.

"Serizawa! Come here!" said Mob. He was on his phone again. Why? He was the one who asked her to come and hang out. Out being out in the world, not in his apartment. On his bed. No, think about something else.

"Coming!" said Serizawa. Ok. He was having fun and she was having fun. This was a date. A real date. Right?

He had been wanting this with her for so long. He liked it when they were together but he also wanted, well, everything with her. She liked what they did together, what he did to her, and he wasn't complaining but he also wanted all the other things that couples did.

Because she was his girlfriend.

They were not just having sex.

"Here, play this with me. It's fun." Said Mob. It was an old rhythm game that she and Ritsu used to play. One time on her birthday they spent three hours playing this together, she let him win in the end even though it was her birthday. There were so many colors, that was what Mob liked best, and the music was nice.

"Hey, I know this game. I had the home version of this back when…." Said Serizawa. Back when he was locked in his room all those years ago. Not much else to do and mom was happy to get him games just to keep him from either exploding or going crazy.

"Back when it came out?" asked Mob. This was a really old game. The machine for it was kind of beat up. Someone had even carved their names into the side. They did the names under an umbrella thing…

"Yeah, back then." Said Serizawa. Those days were over, now. He was with his girlfriend and he was happy and he wouldn't waste another day of his life locked up in his room.

"That was a long time ago." Said Mob. This game was older than she was.

"It was. But we're here now and that's what matters." Said Serizawa. He reached over and took her hand. She pulled away.

"Serizawa….we're outside." Said Mob. Outside where her brother could be lurking somewhere trying to figure out what it was that she was doing and then he'd be all upset and tell mom and dad or just get mad at Serizawa like he had gotten at Teru when Teru asked her out. That was what she was worried about, not about the fact that if she held his hand out in the world then she would have to call herself his official girlfriend.

"We aren't at work." Said Serizawa. He got the rule about not holding hands at work, that was work, and he understood that sometimes public displays of affection wouldn't be appropriate for the setting but there were a bunch of other couples there, couples her age, and they were holding hands or worse.

"We aren't…but we're going to play now. We need both hands for that." Said Mob. She couldn't reject him. She knew the pain of it and she couldn't be the one to make another human being feel like that.

"Right. You're right." Said Serizawa. That was what she meant. She liked holding hands with him. She liked those times, afterwards, when they'd be there in the dark and just holding hands and holding each other. The times when he said everything he thought about her. How much he loved her. How perfect she was. How he was so happy to have her in his life. She always listened. She was a good listener like that.

Mob swiped her unlimited play card and they got to it. She had been playing this game so long she recognized each of the patterns it went on. It had a few so it didn't get boring but the game makers didn't count on someone coming every day in elementary school with her little brother and playing through almost every level of difficulty until the sun went down. She hit each colored button in time with the pattern the music made. No mistakes. None on Serizawa's end, either. Well, he had played this game before, back when it came out.

Probably before she had even been born.

So of course he would be able to keep up with her. Maybe she wouldn't even have to let him win. Maybe he would win on his own, which would be a nice change of pace. She always let everyone else win, especially Ritsu. He was her little brother and she loved him. He had been the only person she knew with the patience to play this with her. Teru didn't much care for rhythm games, Sho liked things with shooting and fighting and explosions, and Tome mostly played classic arcade games and dancing games. Serizawa liked the kinds of games she liked. He liked a lot of the things she liked.

She wondered if Master Reigen liked the sorts of games she liked. He belonged in his own box, that box labeled 'proper adult' and proper adults didn't go to arcades and eat candy and soda for dinner and play games until the sun went down and they were due home. Proper adults did proper adult things, like not spend time in arcades. Or date fifteen year olds, apparently.

Mob didn't want a proper adult.

Serizawa was fun. Serizawa listened to her no matter what. Serizawa never rejected her. He would never reject her and she could never reject him. To reject him would be to cause him pain and she could not do that. She could make the best of this, though. He was fun and nice and physically it was getting better and better. He wasn't Master Reigen but Master Reigen was a proper adult and proper adults did not date fifteen year olds.

Serizawa wasn't a proper adult at all and she liked that about him. He didn't see her as a proper kid, either. Proper kids did not date thirty one year olds. Proper kids did not stay out until past nine with their sort of thirty one year old boyfriends every single night. Mob was not proper and neither was Serizawa and maybe that was why they were good together.

It wasn't proper love but it was something more than Mob had ever had in her life.

It was just too bad that Serizawa wanted more from her than she could give.

She couldn't stay the night with him even on a weekend. Mom and dad didn't mind her coming home late so long as she came home. If she started staying out all night they would notice. Ritsu would most certainly notice and he would most certainly say something to mom and dad and then mom and dad would most certainly be upset with her and in their upsetness they would most certainly forbid her from seeing Serizawa and if that happened Serizawa would most certainly be upset so that was why she was most certainly not going to stay the night with him.

Not that she didn't want to. Of course she most certainly wanted to because it was looking more and more like she was most certainly his girlfriend and if she was most certainly his girlfriend then that was most certainly what a girlfriend did. Girlfriends most certainly did not feel squished and trapped when they fell asleep next to their boyfriends and they most certainly didn't close their eyes and imagine what it would be like to be sleeping next to the man that she most certainly wanted to be with more than anything in the whole wide world.

Mob most certainly didn't feel like that.

"You're really good at this. You might actually beat me." Said Serizawa. She was keeping up with him. She was good, really good. He had been playing this game since before she was even born and she was keeping up with him. Of course he played the home version, it was a different layout at the actual arcade.

"I'll let you win if you want." Said Mob

"No! I want you to win." Said Serizawa. She was so happy whenever she won. Sometimes they played together, not this, mostly go, and she always got so happy when she won on her own. Her eyes would light up and she'd do that little smile that she did. Her aura would light up, too. She was so beautiful.

"But I want you to win." Said Mob

"Maybe we'll tie, then." Said Serizawa

"Maybe. Nobody ever tied with me before, not even my little brother." Said Mob

"Nobody ever tied with me before, either, but I always played against the computer." Said Serizawa

"I'm sorry." Said Mob

"About what?" asked Serizawa

"That you didn't have anybody to play with, not even online." Said Mob

"Back then I couldn't connect my console to the internet." Said Serizawa

"Why?" asked Mob

"Because they didn't connect to the internet back then. You remember, right?" Said Serizawa

"I think that I wasn't born yet." Said Mob

"This would have been back when I was twelve…yes, you weren't born yet." Said Serizawa. He stopped moving for a moment and she took the lead. Right. She hadn't been born in…when had he gotten this game? Two thousand or two thousand one. She was….he did some quick math. Right. She hadn't been born until two thousand four.

He forgot, sometimes, about just how many years separated them. How many years he had wasted. He had locked himself away at the age of twelve and missed out on so much. Fifteen years. The span of her lifetime. He had missed out on what she was living now. Times like this, places like these. He was the oldest person in arcade, he knew he was, but he didn't' feel it.

He knew that he wasn't an actual adult. Actual adults had gone to school and had lives outside of dark rooms lit only by the glare of screens. Endless bags of chips, boxes of cookies, and cups of noodles. More soda consumed than actual water and then the stench of piss filled sods bottle because there were days that he couldn't even drag himself to the bathroom attached to his room. But no, those days were over and they were never coming back.

He could never get back the time he lost but he could make the most of the time he had left. He had wasted fifteen, no, eighteen years of his life. He was not going to waste another moment. He looked over at her, at Mob. Shigeko. His Mob. His Shigeko. His and nobody else's. Not that he was happy with himself for having such terribly possessive thoughts.

All the books and websites said that women hated it when their boyfriends were possessive. It made them feel trapped when they were treated like property. He knew that Mob was not his property. He knew that she was his in the romantic sense, she was not literally his possession. So then why was he so possessive? Why did he feel like he needed to keep her, to claim her? Why did the idea of her spending time with another man made him want to explode?

Not just any man, thought he didn't want her to spend time with any other man, but it was especially Reigen Arataka who made him feel like this. Master Reigen. His boss and only adult friend. Serizawa knew that the thought he had been having were crazy. If Reigen wanted her then he could have so easily had her before. He was smart and good looking and together. Serizawa was a mess and he knew it. Reigen had never had her before and he didn't want her now, even though it sometimes seemed like it.

Even though Reigen was always trying to come into his and Mob's conversations.

Even though Reigen was always finding something for Serizawa to do that was out of the room so that Reigen and Mob were alone.

Even though Reigen had asked Mob and Mob alone to join him for dinner.

Why had he wanted to be with her alone? He said that he wanted it to be like old times. Who cared about old times, though? These were new times. Master Reigen knew that Mob was his girlfriend, it must have been obvious. He had told Reigen, right? He couldn't remember if he did. He couldn't just up and say it now because, well, he probably had already said something and saying something again would just be weird.

Serizawa knew that he was just being jealous. Possessive. She was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. She was the person who had saved him in every way a person could be saved. She had taught him how to be strong in the real way. She was his everything and the thought of another man taking her from him made him want to explode.

She noticed the spike in his energy and smoothed it out. She took both hands off the arcade cabinet and let him get in the lead.

"You didn't have to do that." Said Serizawa

"I wanted to. You felt upset." Said Mob

"I'm sorry I was just…in my own head." Said Serizawa

"What were you thinking about?" asked Mob

"You." Said Serizawa

"Me? Why? I'm right here next to you." Said Mob

"…you are." Said Serizawa. She was right there next to him, not Reigen. Him. She had chosen to be with him, here, in this place and at this moment. He suddenly felt much better.

"So you don't need to worry about me, Serizawa. I'm right here. Come on, let's play something else…or we could go to your apartment maybe…" said Mob. She knew a good way to fix it when he got like that. She looked up at him. Was her meaning clear?

"My apartment? No, it's too late." Said Serizawa. There was a good reason that he suggested that they go out tonight. He had spent last night making something for her. The books, well a few books, said that in nature the male of the species had to demonstrate his worth to his mate. Usually this was done by building a shelter, getting her some kind of food, or fighting another male. Well he wasn't going to get them a house yet, the internet said that it was too soon to even think about asking her to live with him and he wasn't totally sure what the law on that one was anyway. He had gotten her dinner and made her dinner a bunch of times so that had been done to death, and she hated fighting and, frankly, after three years as Toichiro's body guard he was sick and tired of fighting too.

He then did some thinking and decided to get her a gift. Gifts were romantic. Not flowers, he decided, because she could make plants grow on her own. Not candy, either, because that fell under that whole food thing. He thought about other things she liked and settled on that show she was always talking about.

He knew that she liked it but not that much. She was kind of obsessed with it and it was sort of his fault. He had found a used copy of a manga of a game of that show and the rest was history. Some days it seemed like that was all she wanted to talk about. Not that he minded their long conversations about where each piece of media fit into which timelines. They had come up with thirty seven loosely connected timelines.

It wasn't easy but if this was what his girlfriend cared about then it would be what he cared about, too.

At first he had just thought about getting her a game or some merchandise. That seemed so…impersonal though. Something store bought just didn't seem like…enough…for her. Something mass produced. No, she needed something that was **from him** and she needed to know that it was from him. She needed something that nobody else in all of the world had because there was nobody else in all the world like her. She needed something that didn't exist for anyone else in the world but for her. Mob. His everything.

He then came to the conclusion that he should make her something. She loved his models. Sometimes she would just walk around and look at them. Reach out like she was going to touch them but pull away quickly. She was afraid. She was afraid that she would end up breaking them. Her powers were unstable, sometimes, as were his. He needed to make her something unbreakable. Something that she could enjoy without fear. He could give her something like that.

And with that he had spent the night shaping, painting, and reinforcing plastic into a gift for her. He needed to make it strong, stronger than anything he had ever done before. He had to reinforce a few of his models again. She had been with him every night and every night she had lost control. She always did right when she finished. Physically. Emotionally. She always lost control and he loved it.

He needed to make her something that could stand up to the loss of control and he did. He would probably be done with it by tomorrow. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face….

Of course judging by the look on her face now she wanted him to see a totally different look on her face in the future.

"It's not even…I mean it's only nine thirty." Said Mob. It seemed like the more she got it from him the more she wanted it in general. Her mind had always wandered to that place, for about a year or two now it had seemed like that switch in her brain was stuck on, but now it was different. Now she actually knew what happened and what it felt like and she wanted to feel it again and again and again. It was so much better with another person.

"Usually you head home soon." Said Serizawa. She did that. She never stayed the night. Sometimes they fell asleep but she was always gone when he woke up.

"Oh yeah. I do. But I still like it when we…you know." Said Mob. She was starting to get a greater appreciation of the main event, too. She had to move too, she decided. It was better when she moved. She wanted to know how god it could be. If it could be as good as it had been in her mind. If reality could match or exceed fantasy. If the person in her reality could match or exceed the person in her mind.

"I like it too, but I like other things too." Said Serizawa. He reached over and rested his hand on her waist. The dip seemed like it had been molded for his hand alone. Both of his hands could almost span her entire waist.

"…so do I…" said Mob. She expanded her perceptions. No other espers around. Not Ritsu or Sho. Nobody to tattle to mom and dad. Not that she was doing anything. She was just at an arcade with her friend. That was all.

"Not tonight but the next night…can you stay?" asked Serizawa. He wanted to wake up next to her, he needed to wake up next to her. To wake up with proof that, yes, this was all real and she was real. This angel had come down to Earth just for him.

"….do you feel bad when I leave?" asked Mob. Did she make him feel the way Master Reigen made her feel?

"….sometimes. I miss you…Mob. Shigeko." Said Serizawa

"But you see me every day." Said Mob

"But I still miss you." Said Serizawa

"….this weekend my parents are going out of town for their wedding anniversary….and Ritsu is going to have Sho stay over and I don't want to be around if they do…couple stuff…so this weekend then. But I have to be back before my parents come back." Said Mob. She needed to be a good person and good people did not put the people they cared about in that kind of pain.

"This weekend…." Said Serizawa. He'd need to clean up, and get more food. Things she liked. He'd have to wash his sheets and bedding. Actually all of his laundry. They'd have an entire weekend together….days and nights….

"Yes. They're leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday evening." Said Mob. She had intended to spend that weekend working and holing up in her room watching anime on her phone because, well, she knew how Sho and Ritsu were. She knew how she was and what she thought about and she knew that it was even worse for boys and she did not want to be privy to whatever they had planned together. Especially because Ritsu was her little brother.

Serizawa didn't say anything to that. He just leaned down and kissed her. She didn't do anything for a moment before kissing him back quickly and pulling away. She was flushed, then, and so was he. She was looking around. For what he did not know. All he knew was that it had just been the most perfect moment in the history of perfect moments. Well, not the most perfect moment but one of them. He had wanted two things in their relationship for so long, not long at all if one were to go by the calendar but long enough if one were to go by the heart.

He had wanted to spend a night with her. Now he was getting two. Day, night, day, night, and then day. Three days and two nights. Three days and two nights to spend listening to her endless stories about school and clubs and friends. To watch the shows with her that made her light up. To hear her speak over the dialogue as she explained characters and motivations and plotlines with such excitement, undetectable to those unfamiliar with her manner of speech but clear as day to him. To have her in his arms as she drifted off to sleep. The scent of her skin, her hair. The soft little mews she sometimes made as she dozed off. The light show her aura made as she dreamt of things he was not privy to. Waking up next to her, buried in her long black hair. Her back pressed against his chest. His arms keeping her safe and her presence keeping him strong.

This would be perfect.

A perfect taste of what was to come. What he sometimes imagined was to come.

He loved her. He loved her with every fiber of his being. He wanted a lifetime with her. A lifetime with her would make up for the lifetime he had lost, thrown away, hidden away from. Not that he had any serious plans of asking her serious questions. He hadn't even known her a full year, yet, but he felt as though he could not live without her. Not just because of sex, though it helped. He knew that if she asked him to, not that it seemed like she ever would, he would gladly never touch her like that again if it meant that they could still be together.

Not that she would ever ask that of him. Sometimes it felt like that was all she ever asked of him.

She would want to, this weekend. She would want to spend the entire weekend in bed, it was her favorite place after all. Would she want to go outside with him? To walk through the crowds of people set free by the weekend? Go to places together with him? Somewhere new, somewhere they hadn't gone before. Someplace she would like. The arcade again? The park? The cat shelter? Ramen? The possibilities were dizzying.

He would make this weekend amazing for her. Who knew when they'd get another chance to be together like this? She was still young and beholden to her family. He got the feeling that her parents still didn't know. He had told his mother that he was seeing someone and mother did want him to bring her around but he heeded Master Reigen's advice and decided that it was too early. He had done some research and figured that she would take meeting his mother as him declaring that he wanted more from the relationship. That was for a woman you were planning on marrying, the internet had said.

He may not have been some kind of relationship expert but he knew that if he were to get down on one knee and propose Mob would freak out. Hell, even imaging it made him want to freak out.

He wasn't an idiot. He knew that it was too soon for all of that. Right now he would just enjoy what he had with her.

Mob made a similar decision long ago. Well, long ago to her. She was going to enjoy what she had with Serizawa. Maybe this weekend would be fun, and not just for bed reasons. Not that bed reasons weren't important reasons. They could hang out all the time, he was a fun person to hang out with. They could even go to the arcade again. He liked arcades, she liked arcades, maybe they could spend the entire weekend at the arcade. They could hide behind the machines after closing time and then when all the workers went home they could play the games. Maybe the game characters all came to life after the arcade closed, like in that movie she liked. Toys came to life, videogame characters, even appliances. Well, in the world of movies.

Mob was glad that Serizawa's plastic models couldn't come to life. The things they did, the sounds she made…

The sounds she wanted to make.

Yes, she was looking forward to this.

He insisted on walking her home. She was not looking forward to what would come from this. She could feel Ritsu. Was she getting closer to him or was he getting closer to her? Based on where she felt him she figured that he was at home already. Good. She'd part ways with Serizawa at the beginning of her block. Ritsu's range wasn't that great. Serizawa liked walking with her after all. She let him hold her hand. It was late. Nobody was around. The blocks were quiet and empty. The people inside the houses were mostly asleep, she thought. It was getting to be the sleeping hours. Those long hours in the night that seemed to go by so fast. Those were the hours that Serizawa wanted to spend with her. But why? Why did he so want to sleep next to her all night? He would just end up waking up feeling tired. His bed was a two people bed, not a one person bed like hers, but there wasn't enough space for the two of them.

He always crowded her.

Even when they walked down the walked the street, like now, he crowded her. He held her hand this time, but he still walked too close to her. His arm knocked against her shoulder. She needed space. He didn't want to give it. She tried to put some between them but he still walked far too closely. His fingers tried to lace themselves between hers. His hands were bigger than hers, much bigger. She could fit her hand in his.

"Wait!" said Serizawa. This night was so perfect, it seemed, but he knew how he could make it better for her. She liked Shoujo and for her he had studied some of it. This night was perfect. The moon was full and bright, the street was quiet, and the breeze was the perfect amount of coolness. Atmosphere was important. He opened his umbrella and held it over them with his powers.

"Serizawa, you don't have to." Said Mob even though this was kind of nice. She never thought that she would ever share an umbrella with someone like this. She had shared an umbrella with Master Reigen on a few occasions. Those times had all been rainy days. She had held it up with her powers. Now she was with Serizawa and he meant it when they shared this umbrella and he was there and warm and he wanted this with her.

"I want to. Every time I do this you say that I don't have to and I always tell you I want to. You don't have to worry about inconveniencing me or anything like that, Mob, because you don't. I love you." said Serizawa as they walked through her neighborhood under his umbrella. He had walked with her like this before, but during the day. The nighttime made it more romantic, he thought, and he needed to make this nice for her. He needed to make it just the way she had always wanted, just like in her manga. She was always so worried about being a bother. She always told him that he didn't have to cook for her or keep his umbrella over her or any of the other things he did for her. He didn't mind, this was what boyfriends did.

Mob stopped walking. This was the end of the last block and the beginning of hers. She could feel him looking at her. It hung in the air between them. 'I love you'. He said it all the time. She never said it back. She hugged him or kissed him or pretended that she didn't hear him or that she drifted off after they were together. She couldn't pretend to be asleep. She could lean up to kiss him...

"I love you, Mob." Said Serizawa again. This was the perfect night for her to say it back. He sometimes got the feeling that he said it too often, or that she didn't feel the same way…but of course she did. If she didn't then she would have said so. If she didn't then she wouldn't share herself with him in the way that she did. That couldn't have been just sex. Just sex couldn't make him feel like that. Just sex couldn't make him want to hold her until the end of time. Just sex couldn't make him want to spend his entire life with her until one of them died. Just sex didn't make him feel everything that she made him feel. He just…he needed to hear her say that she loved him. He needed to hear it because otherwise…oh! He was just so terribly insecure, wasn't he?

"Kiss me." Said Mob. She tried to say it. She tried to but she couldn't. Every time she tried she looked up and saw Master Reigen. The last time she had ever said these words…the last time she had uttered the three most important words one person could say to another he had torn her heart out like in Mortal Kombat. She couldn't handle feeling like that again.

She didn't want to make anyone feel like that, too.

"I love you, Shigeko." Said Serizawa before he kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She wanted to deepen it but Serizawa wasn't kissing her like that, like when they were alone. His hand was on her cheek. He was kissing her for a long time. Not moving, either. Boring.

Maybe she just thought that it went without saying, Serizawa thought. It went without saying like most things did with her. She was a woman of few words. She could express so much with just her eyes, herself. He knew what she was expressing now. She was saying it clear as day.

I love you, Katsuya.

He wanted to walk her the rest of the way home. She said no. She said that her brother would be able to sense him. Serizawa wouldn't mind saying hi to Ritsu. He seemed like a nice kid and Sho always spoke very highly of him. Mob had told him that it wouldn't be a good idea, that Ritsu would get into one of his Ritsu moods. Serizawa decided to take her word for it even though he did want to meet her family. He thought that it might be too soon, though.

Mob said her goodbyes to Serizawa and walked the rest of the way home by herself. The minute she got through the door she felt Ritsu's aura. He was bothered by something. She decided to see what was up. At the very least she could tell him to stop stalking her. She ascended the stairs one by one, careful not to bother mom and dad. They were probably asleep. They had to get up early for work. She made it to the top of the stairs and made her way to Ritsu's door. She didn't feel Sho. Good. She knocked at the door.

"You can come in." said Ritsu. Mob cracked the door opened and peaked in before crossing the threshold. Ritsu was laying in his bed the short way, with his legs resting up the wall. Mob stared at him for a moment. He looked over his head at her.

"Something's bothering you, brother." Said Mob. As annoyed as she was at being followed around she still loved her brother.

"Nothing that's your problem." Said Ritsu looking back up at the wall. Mob laid next to him, her kegs next to his.

"I still want to make you feel better, if it's something that I can help with." Said Mob. There was a moment of silence.

"Do you really want to make me happy?" asked Ritsu

"Of course I do." Said Mob

"Then stop seeing Reigen." Said Ritsu

"Ritsu, no. I'm not going to quit my job. I don't know why you dislike Master Reigen so much but I'm not going to stop going to work." Said Mob. She wanted to make her brother happy but she also had herself to think about. She just didn't get what Ritsu's problem was.

"My problem with him is that he's going to take advantage of you." Said Ritsu

"No he's not." Said Mob. He had told her, before, that he was done using her as a meal ticket.

"He is, you just can't see it. I've seen how he is with you. I've seen the way he looks at you, the way he's always touching you." Said Ritsu

"Ritsu, Master Reigen isn't in love with me." Said Mob. She wanted to laugh, and she almost did, from the sheer absurdity of it. Master Reigen return her feelings? Impossible.

"I'm not talking about love, sister." Said Ritsu

"Then what are you talking about?" asked Mob

"Don't make me say it." Muttered Ritsu

"Say what?" asked Mob. Ritsu was talking like Master Reigen had feelings for her, which he most certainly did not. That was what had gotten her into this mess.

"He's trying to…he's trying to sleep with you." Said Ritsu feeling himself turning red. He didn't want to talk about this or anything relating to this with his sister. Hell, this was Shigeko. She probably needed stuff like that explained to her, not that he was going to.

"No he's not." Said Mob telling him the truth. The complete and total truth.

"Yes he is! He is and you can't see it!" said Ritsu kicking the wall.

"Don't be so loud! You're going to wake mom and dad." Whispered Mob

"Maybe I should wake them!" said Ritsu. Maybe he was getting tired of protecting his sister. Maybe he was just getting ready to be done with the whole thing.

"Don't." said Mob lowly. She did not want to drag them into this part of her life. She didn't even want Ritsu in this part of her life.

"I'm getting tired of keeping you safe, ok? Mom and dad could make you-"said Ritsu. He felt a burst of power hit him.

"Ritsu nothing is going on between me and Master Reigen. Ok?" said Mob. She wished that there was, it would have been wonderful if it was, but there wasn't.

"Sister, I know you're lying." Said Ritsu closing his eyes. Mob shook her head.

"…I'm not…ok?" said Mob softly. Ritsu turned to face his sister. She looked away from him.

"You're telling the truth." Said Ritsu finally. She didn't lie. His sister was incapable of lying. She was too nice for that. That was why he had to protect her. She was too nice and she'd end up getting used and getting her heart ripped out and he was no kind of brother to her if he let that happen to her.

"There isn't anything happening between me and Master Reigen, Ritsu, there really isn't…ok? There isn't and there never will be…he said so." Said Mob. She didn't want to talk about this but she also did. She didn't have anyone she could talk to about this. The person she used to talk to about this stuff, Master Reigen, was the person who had caused all of this. She couldn't tell Serizawa either because it would break his heart if he knew what happened or how she really felt.

"….you're talking like you…want there to be…" said Ritsu. He had been prepared to present his argument, logically, that Reigen was one of those guys that mom was always warning them about when they were younger. He was going to tell her that the way he looked at her and touched her wasn't platonic and that if he told her some crap like he loved her or whatever he was probably lying because that was how guys were. He hadn't been prepared to hear that his sister had…confessed…to Reigen. Ritsu thought that she had a crush on him but, like, in that giggly girl sort of way.

"Ritsu…don't be nosy, ok? Nothing is happening with me and Master Reigen and nothing ever will happen, alright? So stop following me around, please, and stop sending Sho to follow me around too. It's stalking and stalking is wrong. Remember that movie we saw?" asked Mob

"…so Reigen was telling the truth…" muttered Ritsu

"What?" asked Mob. Did he just say what she thought that he just said…?

"Nothing." Said Ritsu quickly

"Don't tell lies, brother, I heard you say something." Said Mob

"Fine….I just said that Reigen was telling the truth…is all…but it was Sho that asked him! I was just watching his apartment to make sure that you weren't, you know, going there…" said Ritsu. He shrank under the sheer intensity of his sister's stare.

"Ritsu. Stop. Stalking. People." Said Mob slowly. It was one thing to follow her around, she was his sister, but to follow Master Reigen around too…nope. How was she supposed to explain this? That Ritsu knew how she felt, that he had figured it out on her own and figured that she must have been seeing him?

"I wasn't stalking-" said Ritsu

"No more following people around and spying on them, then. Ok? I don't need you to keep me safe, ok?" said Mob. Honestly. She had defeated Sho's dad, saved everyone from Claw twice, and grew that big tree thing. She could handle herself and protect herself from whatever it was the Ritsu was so terrified of

"Then stop making me worry! You're always out all night and I just…I'm your brother and I'm supposed to keep you safe from…" said Ritsu

"From what? Ritsu, I'm the one who keeps you safe. You and everyone else." Said Mob

"This is different. This isn't Claw." Said Ritsu

"Then what are you so afraid of?" asked Mob

"All the bad stuff that happens to girls, ok!? That's what I'm so scared of." Said Ritsu

"Well don't be! Nothing like that is happening to me and Master Reigen isn't like that anyway! He made himself perfectly clear that he doesn't like me like that and I've moved on! So stop with all the stalking!" said Mob shaking the house with her powers.

"So you did confess…" said Ritsu. He wanted to throw up, and not just because he was sitting practically upside-down.

"Yes! I confessed and he said no and that's what happened! Are you happy now, Ritsu? Now you know what happened." Said Mob rubbing her eyes with the back of her arm. Ritsu reached over and took her hand in his.

"I'll kill him." said Ritsu. Nobody made his sister cry, not even that sweaty old conman. Mob laughed.

"Before you hated him because you thought he wanted to sleep with me and now you want to beat him up for not wanting to sleep with me. Which is it?" laughed Mob. Ritsu laughed too, after a moment.

"I don't know! I just…I just don't want you to get hurt." Said Ritsu

"I know. I don't want you to get hurt either, but I don't stalk you. Even when Sho started coming into your room in the middle of the night I never spied. Ok, I did once, but then I saw you kissing and I decided to leave you guys alone." Said Mob

"…..please don't ever mention that again." Said Ritsu. He remembered that night. The whole house shook and he heard his sister's door open and shut really fast.

"Ok. Sorry, though, for spying." Said Mob

"…it's ok…" said Ritsu

"Where is Sho, anyway? Usually he's here by now." Said Mob

"….you can tell when he's here?" asked Ritsu

"Yes, I can sense other espers in the next room, brother." Said Mob

"You never said anything." Said Ritsu

"No, of course not. It's none of my business what couple stuff you get up to with your boyfriend just like it's none of your business what couple stuff I do." Said Mob

"Sho and I don't-and anyway, you said that you and Reigen weren't…you know." Said Ritsu

"We aren't! We really aren't, ok? And I didn't know that you and Sho weren't…you know, too. I thought that you guys would be, you know, this weekend. That's why I made plans to not be here." Said Mob

"….you did?" asked Ritsu. Well that was certainly…courteous…of her. Sho would be happy, at least. Sho wanted to…stuff…and it wasn't that Ritsu was opposed to…stuff….but he wasn't ready for stuff. He wished that he had someone to talk to about all of that, like a big brother even, but he got a big sister and he was not talking to his big sister about this. Besides, she didn't even know what stuff was anyway. He'd seen her manga and watched her shows. Girls weren't like that. They were all about love and bike rides and umbrella sharing.

"Yes. I'm going to stay at a friend's house this weekend so you and Sho can be alone." Said Mob omitting which friend it was. Hopefully Ritsu was done with the whole stalking thing. Hopefully now that he realized that Master Reigen didn't share her feelings Ritsu would do something else with his free time besides follow people around and spy on them.

"…which friend?" asked Ritsu after a moment. He knew that he sounded suspicious there, because he was. Hanazawa, maybe? He knew that Hanazawa liked her and…nope. None of his business. Hanazawa was their friend and he wasn't a hundred years old like Reigen was. Or maybe she wouldn't be with a guy at all. She had friends who were girls. That nosy girl in her homeroom class, that weird girl in her club, even that clairvoyant girl from the awakening lab.

"Stop being so nosy." Said Mob. What did it matter which friend? A friend. Ritsu couldn't be nosy about this because it would be hypocritical.

"I'm not being nosy." Said Ritsu. It was a simple question. It wasn't like he was asking for an itinerary of her weekend.

"You are. I'm staying with a friend, ok? Don't tell mom and dad, though." said Mob

"Fine. I won't tell if you won't tell." Said Ritsu. They were not supposed to have company or go out when mom and dad were away for long periods of time, it was one of their few rules.

"Deal. I wouldn't tell anyway. I know that you and Sho really like each other and I want you to be happy." Said Mob

"…I want you to be happy, too, sister." Said Ritsu

"….can I ask you something?" asked Mob

"Of course, sister." Said Ritsu

"How did you know?" asked Mob

"Know what?" asked Ritsu

"That you liked Sho." Said Mob

"I just sort of knew, I guess. I mean…I think about him a lot and I like spending time with him…even though he can be a total dumbass sometimes…and he makes me smile…and, yeah, that's how I knew." Said Ritsu

"Oh. Thank you, brother." Said Mob

"Why do you ask?" asked Ritsu. Did she…like…someone? As long as it wasn't Reigen. Maybe Hanazawa, he was ok guy. Or one of those guys from the Awakening Lab. Heh. Maybe it was Serizawa. Sho and his crazy ideas. Serizawa and his sister? No way. Maybe. No way.

"….I'm just trying to figure some stuff out. Nothing that you need to worry about, Ritsu." Said Mob

"Figure what stuff out, sister?" asked Ritsu

"Nothing. Everything. Stuff. It's my stuff, though, ok? I love you and you love me but…but some stuff I need to figure out on my own." Said Mob

"I can help you, you know, if you'll let me. Like, if anyone is messing with you-" said Ritsu

"Ritsu, I can lift skyscrapers. You were there when I lifted the skyscrapers. Nobody is going to try and fight me and if they do then they're going to be the ones that need saving, not me. Ok? Just…it's my own stuff." Said Mob

"…I wasn't talking about fighting." Said Ritsu

"Just because I'm a girl that doesn't mean that I need my brother to always come in and try to save me, ok? Just…just let me figure it out." Said Mob

"Fine, but can you at least tell me where you're going to be all weekend so I don't worry?" asked Ritsu

"A friend's house, ok? I'm not going to be anywhere dangerous. Don't worry about me, just have fun with Sho. Oh, and remember all the stuff they said in health class. I don't want you to get sick or anything." Said Mob not trying at all to embarrass her little brother. She was being serious, people could get sick from doing…stuff…if the other person wasn't a virgin. Not that she wanted to know if her brother or Sho were…not that she wanted to think about this part of her little brother's life…not that she even wanted her little brother to have a part of his life like that…

"Sister….please don't ever talk about that again…" said Ritsu pulling his pillow over his face. No. His sister was not allowed to think about that part of his life…not that there even was that part of his life…not that there would ever be if he didn't tell Sho he was sorry…he'd text Sho in a minute. Then everything would be better between them and he could forget that he ever had this conversation with his sister…

"Ok. I won't. Goodnight, Ritsu. I love you." Said Mob. She kissed the top of his head, the part that wasn't covered by a pillow, and got off his bed. She went check the time on her phone. Oh no. Mom had said that she had to take her medicine at the exact same time every day. She went to her room and got the little plastic case out from her underwear and socks drawer. She sat down at her desk and got the little pink pill from it's blister casing. She lifted it and spun it around with her powers for a moment before uncapping the water bottle on her desk and swallowing the pill down with a swig of water.

"_Don't you dare embarrass this family by getting pregnant, Shigeko." _Mom had said. Apparently she went through her drawers regularly and saw that her emergency, don't have a baby, pill had been taken. Mom took her to the lady doctor and had to answer a bunch of questions and get weighted and her blood pressure taken and all of that. Then in the car ride home mom kept telling her not to get carried away again and that she expected any boyfriends that she had to come to the house and meet everyone.

Of course mom didn't know that her sort of boyfriend was Serizawa.

And that was not a bomb that Mob was ready to drop on her family…and it wasn't a label that she was ready to put on herself. Girlfriend. Serizawa Katsuya's girlfriend.

Nor was she ready to have Serizawa's baby, either.

Mob pulled off her clothes and used her powers to toss them into the hamper. She stood there in the middle of her room in her underwear. She walked over to the mirror on her wardrobe and just stared. She didn't look any different. She thought that when she started having sex she'd look different. Older. She didn't. Same old same old. She turned and looked at herself from different angles.

Still the same old Mob. Undershirt and all.

She had imagined that when she started having sex she'd have prettier underclothes, too. She had always just sort of imagined herself becoming totally different, an older version of herself, when she and Master Reigen finally had sex. Well, that part wasn't going to happen. Maybe that was why she still looked the same. Little. Same white undershirts she had always worn. Same white underwear she had always worn. Some of hers had stripes or polka dots but most were plain white. Serizawa didn't seem to mind.

Would Master Reigen have minded?

He didn't want to be with her because she was young, that was his excuse anyway. He had actual women that he could be with. Women who wouldn't have to ask him to treat them like women. Not like her. She was still just a kid to him. She pulled her undershirt tight around her chest and jumped. There, instant boobs.

Serizawa never minded how she looked. How tiny her breasts were, well, compared to a lot of other girls. Not that she spent a lot of time staring at the other girls' breasts. She did glance, though, to see how she measured up. She couldn't measure up to them. Serizawa didn't mind though. He liked them, he certainly spent enough time playing with them when they were together.

He didn't care because he had never been with anyone before her. Neither had she.

That was something that he had above Master Reigen. She had always been worried about measuring up to everyone he had ever been with before her, and it must have been a lot of women because he was Master Reigen and he was amazing.

Mob used her powers to pull a nightgown up over her head. White. Why was so much of what she owned white? White was for virgins, she knew that, and she was most certainly not. Maybe she should start buying her own clothes, now. If virgins wore white then non-virgins wore black. Black was a sexy color. Red too. What would Serizawa like to see her in? Guys cared about that stuff, right? If they didn't then there wouldn't be so many stores that sold sexy underwear and sleep clothes. Or maybe Serizawa didn't care. She liked that about him. He didn't want her to measure up to anything.

She liked Serizawa, and not just because she didn't have to measure up to anyone else when they were together. She liked the way that he was nice to her. She liked the way that he listened to her. She liked him.

Not as much as Master Reigen, though, but what man could ever compare to Reigen Arataka?


	8. Gifts from the Heart

It was a pink bag that had caught Reigen's attention as he entered Spirits and Such. Serizawa was already there. He was the first one in, usually. There was a spring in his step as he took a stab at Reigen's long neglected filing. The room was filled with the smell of what Serizawa called green tea. The atmosphere in the room was different, cheerful even. But that was not which held Reigen's attention. No. It was the pink gift bag resting on Mob's desk. He walked over to it and attempted to peer inside. Tissue paper obscured whatever was inside. He wanted to move it aside, to see what secrets this gift held, but he didn't.

This was not for him.

This was for Mob.

But why?

"Master Reigen, good morning!" said Serizawa as he emerged from the backroom. He walked in long strides, a wide smile on his face. Well at least his date had gone well.

"Mornin' Serizawa. What's up with this?" asked Reigen motioning towards the pink bag on Mob's desk. Her birthday wasn't until May….what holiday had he forgotten?

"It's a gift for Mob." Said Serizawa. Reigen frowned a little. She wasn't Master Kageyama to him and hadn't been for weeks.

"I can see that, but why? Her birthday isn't until May 10th." Said Reigen

"May 12th." Corrected Serizawa as he poured Reigen a cup of green water. Some might have even called it tea.

"…right…" said Reigen. How did Serizawa know her birthday?

"When's yours?" asked Serizawa

"October 10th. So, what's the occasion? Did I forget Girl's Day? Did they move Christmas?" Said Reigen not wanting to think about his last birthday. Away from her. Her last birthday, however, had been great. She had been so happy….that was why Serizawa remembered. That was the reason. No other reason.

"No occasion. I just wanted to make her a gift. I hope she likes it." Said Serizawa with a smile that made Reigen want to do things that bosses did not do to their employees.

"You just went and got her something for no reason?" asked Reigen. Don't look into it. This is Serizawa.

"To make her happy." Said Serizawa in a tone that Reigen didn't much care for. No. This was Serizawa. Remember that this was Serizawa.

"Just to make her happy?" asked Reigen. He had a girlfriend. He was not trying to get with Mob. This was not him making a move on Mob. Maybe he was just making up for last year's lackluster birthday gift. What had he gotten her? A doll? She was much too old for dolls.

"Of course. I love it when she's happy." Said Serizawa with an expression on his face that Reigen didn't want to label as….so he wouldn't. It was early. He hadn't even had his tea yet.

"Me too. Whatever it is I'm sure Mob'll love it." Said Reigen. He sat down at his desk and downed his tea quickly. It was early. He had been up all night being stalked by fourteen year olds…or just one fourteen year old. Damn it, Sho…damn it it Ritsu for putting Sho up to it.

"Is something wrong?" asked Serizawa. Reigen gave him a dismissive wave.

"Nothing. Just letting the day wash over me. Thank God it's Friday, am I right?" asked Reigen with a false laugh.

"You're right, thank God it's Friday. I just can't wait for the weekend!" said Serizawa sitting at his desk. He pulled out his phone and was typing something to someone, probably his girlfriend. How did she feel about him getting fifteen year old girls presents for no real reason?

"Big plans?" asked Reigen. More plans with this mysterious university student he had met God knows when? Reigen knew that the polite thing to do would have been to ask about her. What was she like? What was she studying? How did they meet? Hell, what was her name? But he didn't. He didn't want to make this woman real in his mind. For now she was abstract, something that made Serizawa look up to him and ask his advice. Someone who made Serizawa look at him like he was someone.

"Yes. My girlfriend is spending the weekend with me. I'm so excited!" said Serizawa. He looked it, too, Reigen thought. Even the purple of his aura was visible to the naked eye.

"Nice. See, I knew she'd come around." Said Reigen. Maybe he should follow Serizawa's example and find a woman. Not a one night stand but a girlfriend, someone who wasn't fifteen. Someone his own age. Mob…no. He couldn't hurt Mob. He could wait three years. He could wait for Mob. But would Mob wait for him?

Of course she would. She was Mob and she loved him enough to lay it all out on the table for him. He had done the responsible thing and turned his nose up at the spread provided. He could not be with her but she understood why. She understood why she had to wait.

"You were right. I just gave her time and now I can't believe that she's actually going to spend an entire weekend with me. I just don't know what we're going to do…" said Serizawa going off in thought. Reigen raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know what you two can do alone together all weekend?" asked Reigen. He'd give Serizawa the whole weekend off. Mob couldn't come in, anyway. It was her parents' wedding anniversary and they always went to some hot springs resort for the weekend every year. She wasn't allowed out of the house if they were going to be away for so long. Not that Reigen understood what they were so worried about. Anybody stupid enough to mess with Mob would be the one who needed saving, not her.

"Besides that!" said Serizawa with a blush. Reigen rolled his eyes. Serizawa was such a kid sometimes. There wasn't anything embarrassing about what two adults did together and, honestly, Serizawa should be announcing it to the world. A real, live, woman had slept with him. Not that Reigen wanted to be mean or anything.

"Well, what do you usually do together, besides the obvious?" asked Reigen leaning back in his chair. Serizawa really was lucky to have someone like Reigen to guide him.

"We watch TV and take walks, mostly. We talk, too. Well I mostly talk. She doesn't talk a lot unless she has a lot to say. We mostly talk about shows she likes, or things that happened to her at school. She liked to talk about all of her school friends. Oh, and her family too. She loved her little brother a lot. Sometimes we go to the arcade, too, or play go. She likes go." Said Serizawa. Reigen put his teacup down with more force than was needed. Well good for him. No, be nice, Arataka.

"So do all of that, then. The worst thing you can do, when it comes to women, is overthink it. Just go with what feels right." Said Reigen trying to sound like the wise master everyone thought he was.

"But I just feel like we should do something, well, special. She's never stayed the night before. I've never had a girl stay over before, especially for this long." Said Serizawa

"Maybe take her out to a nice dinner, then. Somewhere fancy. Where do you guys usually go?" asked Reigen racking his brain for what he did with his last girlfriend…back in university. Crap. Had it been that long?

"Usually we get ramen or convenience store dinners. I cook for her, too, but nothing too fancy." Said Serizawa

"Well then there you go. Women like it when you make them feel special. Take her out to the new French-ish place they opened. Something Amour. They've got pretty decent dinner specials." Said Reigen. When had he last been there? Oh yeah, cursed shoulders a couple weeks ago. She had been fun.

"Girls like things like that?" asked Serizawa. He had taken out a pen and paper, now, and was writing things down quickly.

"Oh yeah, they live for that stuff. Don't you watch TV? Candle lit dinners, foreign food, fancy wines that you can't pronounce the names of, the whole shebang. They love that stuff, trust me." Said Reigen. Serizawa stopped writing and looked at him.

"But she's too young to drink." Said Serizawa. Now it was Reigen's turn to stop and stare. He had been leaning back, propping himself up. Nonchalant. Now he was sitting normally, both eyes trained on Serizawa's. Blue eyes met brown.

"….is the drinking age still twenty?" asked Reigen. A very young university student then. A first or second year. Not that Reigen had ANY right to throw stones.

"Yes. It's still twenty." Said Serizawa after picking up his phone.

"Ok, then just get her some sparking juice…or just let her sneak from your glass. Nobody really cares, anyway, so long as you're not being obnoxious about it." Said Reigen. Serizawa was back to scribbling down on his notepad. Reigen ran a hand through his hair. Yeah, this girl was too young for him. How old was Serizawa? Thirty one. Over ten years younger than him. Reigen looked over at Mob's desk. He had no right to throw stones.

"But won't I go to jail for letting someone underage drink?" asked Serizawa anxiously.

"Not if you don't get caught. You know, like when you were a kid. Wait, sorry…I forgot…but yeah, everyone drinks underage…except you I guess. Sorry. Have you even ever drank before?" asked Reigen

"Twice." Said Serizawa

"Did you like it?" asked Reigen

"No, it didn't taste good. Shimazaki said that it would get better if I drank more but then I just ended up throwing up. Then he laughed…" said Serizawa

"Who's he?" asked Reigen trying to remember the names and abilities of Serizawa's old coworkers.

"Ryou? He's the teleporter." Said Serizawa

"Without eyes?" asked Reigen with a shudder. That had been…disturbing….seeing that man's empty eye sockets looking up at him after his self-defense rush. In Reigen's defense the guy was beating up middle school kids, and he had no idea that he had been fighting a blind man in the first place!

"Yes, but he doesn't like it when people make fun of him for it." Said Serizawa

"I wasn't making fun of him." said Reigen

"I know, but he might take it that way. When we met I asked him why he didn't have eyes and he hit me." Said Serizawa

"Yeesh, touchy much?" asked Reigen

"He'll touch you, too. That's how he sees you, in detail." Said Serizawa

"You've been spending too much time with Mob." Said Reigen with a dismissive laugh. To his surprise Serizawa sat straight up, his knees making his desk jump.

"Do you really think so? Did she say that?" asked Serizawa. Reigen could feel the energy around them beginning to crackle. Right, Mob was probably his only other real friend.

"No, I was just saying that because of how literal you were, back there. Ok? She hasn't said anything to me. If she didn't want to spend time with you then she would be spending time with someone else." Said Reigen. Like him. The way it was supposed to be. Reigen and Mob. Maybe Reigen, Mob, and Serizawa. Not just Mob and Serizawa.

"….you think she'd spend time with someone else?" asked Serizawa looking, somehow, even more panicked.

"Well, yeah, she has other friends she can be spending time with. Remember, just because you guy are getting closer that doesn't mean that you can monopolize her time. If she needs her space she'll take it…believe me she'll take it…" said Reigen. Those had been the worst two weeks of his life…and they had been all his fault. He smothered her. He called her in excessively. Of course, now, she was coming by almost every, no, every day. Not for very long today, though. She had said that she had to see her parents off. She was just coming in to say hi, she had said. Going their separate ways had affected her, too.

"….how will I be able to tell if she needs her space….?"asked Serizawa quietly. Poor guy, he really didn't have a lot of friends. Not that Reigen had any room to talk. He planned on spending his weekend in front of the TV, smoking, drinking, and maybe heading off to a singles mixer. Maybe he wouldn't close his eyes and think about Mob the whole time….

"Honestly? If you….when she needed her space from me she just took it. She took it because I smothered her. I…I didn't let her have her own life. Just remember that she's not at your beck and call. Remember that she has her own life and her own friends and she won't always be there with you but that's ok because she's still Mob. She's not going to ghost you." Said Reigen even though for two weeks she **had**. She had been **gone** and she had been **fine** but he had been **alone.**

"….I didn't even think that she could just…go…" said Serizawa looking every bit like a kicked puppy.

"She probably won't. She likes you a lot, I can tell. You're the only person who can nerd out with her about that show you guys like." Said Reigen

"Evangelion?" said Serizawa

"Yeah, that. You and Mob are so into it I can't even follow most of what you guys say. I had no idea she was so into it. When I met her she was crazy about Sailor Moon, so if you two ever want to talk about that I'm your guy." Said Reigen. She had been eleven and in love with that show. The friendship between the girls, mostly, and the love interest too. She had been so cute then…cute now, too, but in a whole different way.

"She's not really into magical girls right now. She's more into EVA. Some other Gainax stuff but mostly EVA. It's her favorite thing right now….sometimes it's all she wants to talk about…" said Serizawa

"Well, yeah, she's fifteen. You remember being her age, right? I mean, you must have had something you were obsessed with even if you were, you know…" said Reigen

"Gundam, mostly, and this RPG….I think. I mean I think I was fifteen, then. The years just sort of bled together after a while. Sometimes my mom would knock on my door and tell me that it was my birthday and I would think 'but I just had a birthday'. Sometimes I have to remind myself that's I'm thirty one." Said Serizawa getting that far off look he got sometimes.

"How about I make you a sign saying 'Happy Un-Birthday, Serizawa. You're thirty one years old', and hang it above your desk?" asked Reigen. Serizawa smiled.

"But then how will I see it if it's above my desk?" asked Serizawa

"Then I'll just have to paint a mural on the ceiling. Don't try to talk me out of it, it's the only way, my heart is set." Said Reigen

"You don't have to do that, Master, but thank you. I'm…I'm better now. Not all the way but I'm better. She helps. She helps me a lot. I really love her." said Serizawa with a look that Reigen could only describe as love struck. His eyes, again, glanced over at the pink bag on Mob's desk.

"Your girlfriend?" asked Reigen after a moment. Serizawa nodded.

"Yes. I love my girlfriend so much it…it hurts sometimes. When I'm not with her, I mean, even though I know I'll see her again. Is that…does that make me possessive or needy or weird?" asked Serizawa

"…no. That's love. When you think about her every morning when you wake up…when you close your eyes and imagine her next to you every night….when she's all you want for yourself and your will to succeed…that's love." Said Reigen still looking at Mob's desk. All he desired. Everything he would ever want. Her smiles. Her frowns. Her ups. Her downs. All of it.

"It just doesn't quit, though. Sometimes it's like…the more I see her the more I want to see her. It's like when I'm with her I'm…" said Serizawa

"Somebody." Finished Reigen

"Yes! That's exactly how I feel! I just…it just won't quit. I just…I just want so much from her…I want everything from her but I know that I can't ask." Said Serizawa

"Don't. Don't ask her for too much at once. I've been there. It's overwhelming, when someone just throws down the gauntlet like that. Ease her into how you feel. What you want." Said Reigen

"But I want so much from her. It's just…I've wasted so much of my life already. Fifteen years. No, eighteen years. I wasted so much time and now I have her and she's mine and I just…I want everything with her. I want her to always be mine. I want to wake up with her, I want to go to be with her, I want…I want things that I know that I shouldn't want because I know that we've barely been together but I still…want them…" said Serizawa

"Sometimes you have to put what you want up on the shelf. It's not about what you want, it's about what's good for her. For her and for you, too. Going too fast can really…mess things up." Said Reigen

"How fast is too fast. I mean…on our first date she wanted to…" said Serizawa

"Well that's just sex. There's a difference between sex and everything that comes afterwards. Sex is easy, relationships are hard." Said Reigen

"…but why does it have to be? When I'm with her I'm so happy but then when she's gone it hurts so much…and it's not hard when we're together. When we're all alone she's…different. She talks more. She touches me. She lets me touch her. It's like we're closer together when we're alone. When we're outside it's like there's this entire…world…between us. It feels like it's a lot even when she's right next to me." Said Serizawa

"Then be outside more." Said Reigen

"What?" asked Serizawa

"Outside, the world. You've spent so much time inside spend more time outside." Said Reigen

"But she likes being inside, mostly." Said Serizawa

"Take her outside more. Do things outside of your bedroom. Trust me, it gets old. It's just…sex is fun but everything that comes afterwards is just…hell. I wouldn't know. I haven't had a real girlfriend since university." Said Reigen

"You? Really?" asked Serizawa

"Yeah, I know, right?" said Reigen

"I'm sorry." Said Serizawa

"Don't be. It's my own damn fault. I'm fine, really." Said Reigen

"I feel bad, now, talking about her to you." said Serizawa

"Well don't. Just because I fucked my love life up doesn't mean that you need to fuck yours up too. I'm happy for you two, I really am. She's lucky to have a guy like you and I sincerely hope that this weekend goes well for you. Take her out, have a nice time. Dinner, romantic stroll, star watching, nerding out, all of it. It'll be great. Any woman would be lucky to have a guy like you." Said Reigen speaking a little more candidly than he had intended to. Serizawa was always so down on himself. He needed to stop it, stop kicking himself like that. In him was a world of promise. Serizawa was sort of like Mob to him, without the emotional mess they had gotten themselves into, and Reigen needed to help Serizawa be the best person that he could be. Mob had been trapped in it, too. The self-doubt. Serizawa was going through all of this for the first time, like a kid, so Reigen would build him up when he could and give advice when he could. Serizawa could learn from all of his failures.

"Thank you, really. I feel…better." Said Serizawa

"Don't mention it, that's what I'm here for. They don't call me Master Reigen for nothing. Now come on, we've got a big case today. Some guy got lost in one of those warehouse stores and died. Sounds like a job for us, huh?" asked Reigen even though they weren't due at that job for a while. The atmosphere was too…much…right now. Too much vulnerability to one day. He needed to put some space between the two of them and this office. That pink bag on Mob's desk.

Just a little distance.

Mob wondered if it was right, what she was doing. Wanting some distance between her and Serizawa. She was due home, soon. Mom and dad were going off on their trip. A wedding anniversary. Those were very important. They were going to go off to the hot springs that their honeymoon had been in. Mob had been there, before she was born. Not that she wanted to think about her parents doing things like that.

Things that she did.

Things that she was going to do.

If she had Sho's sense of humor she would have thought that it was funny, what every Kageyama was going to spend the weekend doing. But she was not Sho and she was, mostly, grossed out by all of it. Moms and dads were not allowed to do stuff like that. Little brothers were not allowed to do stuff like that.

Of course by that logic big sisters, daughters, were not allowed to do things like that either.

So she would say nothing to Ritsu even though he was way too little. She would say nothing and he would, in turn, say nothing. Not that he had any idea what she got up to. Not that she ever wanted him to have any idea of what she got up to. Not that she wanted to think about what her little brother and the boy he loved got up to. Sho was nice, she decided. She liked Sho. Ritsu liked Serizawa, she thought. He at least didn't go and give Serizawa any of his patented Ritsu looks. Ritsu was going to have Sho over all weekend.

What would it be like to have Serizawa over?

To have him eating dinner in her kitchen? To sit on her couch and watch TV? To play Nintendo on her console. He could use Ritsu's controller, his 'A' button didn't stick. To kiss her in her bedroom? To lay her down on her futon and….Nope. Don't think about it. She was on her way to work, now, just to say hi. Maybe Master Reigen needed her. Maybe Master Reigen would have saved a job just for her and they'd go just the two of them. Just like it had been before. But it wasn't Master Reigen who wanted to see her, it was Serizawa. Serizawa was the one who's face lit up when she entered the room. Serizawa was the one who would fuss over her when they were out on jobs together. Serizawa was the one who wanted her there, who looked forward to seeing her.

Master Reigen didn't love her, no matter what he said.

He had lied to her before, for years.

But Serizawa had never lied to her.

She told herself that she was going there to see Serizawa. She was going there to say hi and see Serizawa and make him happy because he was so upset when they were apart even though she would see him later but she wanted to see him right after school and not Master Reigen. Serizawa. Her…boyfriend.

Boyfriend.

She needed to get used to that word. She needed to get used to it because he was all she had and he was someone who wanted to be with her so she was therefore his girlfriend. She was staying with him all weekend because she was his girlfriend. Not Master Reigen's. She needed to stop telling herself this and start believing it because she was just going around in circles with herself.

She felt a familiar aura getting nearer and nearer. Not her brother or Sho, thank goodness. She had meant it when she asked Ritsu to stop with all the stalking. She didn't want to explain to Ritsu what was happening. He wasn't the sort of person who could just get out of her business and let her settle her own problems. That was how brothers were. They protected you.

Not that she needed any protection.

She saved the world. She could handle the emotional mess she had gotten herself into.

She felt Serizawa's aura getting closer to hers. No, she was getting closer to him. Their auras tried to bond. That had started happening more and more frequently, even when they weren't having sex. Maybe because they had been together like that so many times their auras always thought that they needed to be together. The other Shigeko certainly enjoyed the new situation.

Mob enjoyed it too. A lot of it.

But why couldn't she quit Master Reigen? Why did she close her eyes and imagine him when she and Serizawa were in bed together? Why did she always stare at him? Why was it Master Reigen who she thought about in her room when it was late and she was all alone?

Because she loved him. She was in love with Reigen Arataka and no amount of rejection would ever make her forget him.

And wasn't that just terrible of her?

She walked more quickly, as if it was even possible to outrun her thoughts of Reigen Arataka. Of how he would feel on top of her. The memory of his lips crashed against hers. The smell of him, all incense and aftershave and cigarettes. What would he be like? What would it be like to fit together with him like puzzle pieces? Would he treat her like Serizawa treated her? Like she was made of glass? Like she would **shatter** of he bit too hard? Grabbed her too hard? Kissed her too hard? Rocked too hard?

Would he know what she liked? Like Serizawa did? Would he know how to make her scream? Not constant screams, and she didn't even scream that often, and when she had it had come as a surprise to both of them. Master Reigen had been with other women before, the thought pained her, so he would know what to do.

At least she didn't have to worry about measuring up to anyone when she was with Serizawa.

They learned together. Now they could fit together with little awkwardness. He was hardly ever off target. She knew what to do with her arms, now. How he liked it when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and played with his hair. How he loved it when she kissed and sucked that juncture of nerves where his jaw met his neck. How when he was about to finish he liked it when she moved against him really hard. He knew what to do now, too. How to touch the nubby thing and be inside of her at the same time. How to grab her hips and pull her down onto him. Even how to move when they fit together. Sometimes it didn't feel like anything special, sometimes it was uncomfortable, and sometimes, rarely, she saw stars.

She hoped that would happen again.

But right now she needed to stop thinking about this because she was at work, now, and she just needed to open the outer door and get upstairs and say hi and see if they needed her and maybe talk to Master Reigen for a little bit. Maybe he'd be standing. Then she could stand next to him and he'd maybe even do that thing where he rested his hand on the small of her back…

The outer door opened. It was Serizawa.

Mob jumped back, almost fearing that what she had been thinking had been written across her face. Serizawa reached over and embraced her.

"Serizawa, we're at work." Said Mob as she was pulled to his chest. He smelled like tea and plastic and cigarettes a little. Master Reigen had been smoking inside again.

"I know. I'm sorry, it's just so good to see you." Said Serizawa still not letting her go. Mob wrapped her arms around him as best as she could. His hands could span her waist but her arms could barely span his body. He pulled away slightly and kissed her quickly.

"Serizawa…." said Mob. She looked up, fearing that Master Reigen was looking down out the window at them right then at that moment. Nope. He wasn't. She could see him, sort of. He had his back to them. He was doing something at his laptop. Still. He could have turned around and saw and then she would have all kinds of explaining to do.

"Mob…" said Serizawa kissing the top of her head. He was still holding her. It was like he was scared that she was going to run away or something, which was dumb, because if she was going to run away she would have done it a long time ago.

"You're smothering me." Said Mob into his chest as he held her even tighter. He let her go immediately. She smoothed down the energy crackling around him. Something must have upset him today. That was her job, to make him feel better. Just like he made her feel better.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! Please, don't go!" said Serizawa. He didn't have his umbrella. Mob reached her hand out. She would have to be his umbrella. He took her hand in his. Tightly.

"Serizawa, I have to go home soon. Remember, my parents are leaving and I have to be there when they do? That's why I skipped club today, so I would have time to see Mas-to see you." Said Mob. Maybe, just maybe, he could sense, or something, the way she had been feeling before about Master Reigen. Maybe. No. Maybe. She squeezed his hand back.

She was not going to hurt him.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant…nothing. Never mind. You're still coming over, though, right?" asked Serizawa. Mob nodded. She had no desire to be at home when Ritsu and Sho did…couple things. Not that she was sure what two boys did exactly but she was NOT finding out from her little brother and his boyfriend.

"I said I would." Said Mob. Serizawa smiled, now, and kissed her again. She kissed him quickly and broke it just as quickly. Maybe she shouldn't have let him kiss her outside, before, because he was certainly doing it a lot now.

"Right. We're going to have so much fun…" said Serizawa. Outside, he could do that. When she was near he could do anything. Maybe he could even leave his umbrella at home…

"Lots of fun…" said Mob. She had no plans to get out of bed this weekend unless she was eating, going to the bathroom, or taking a shower because it was kind of gross afterwards. Slicky and slimy.

"Close your eyes!" said Serizawa suddenly. Mob was puzzled.

"Why?" asked Mob

"Please, just do it." Said Serizawa pleadingly. Mob nodded and closed her eyes. She heard fabric moving and suddenly something was tied around her face.

"Just to make sure that you don't peak." Said Serizawa

"Don't peak at what?" asked Mob reaching up to undo her blindfold. Serizawa took her hand. She expanded out her perceptions, kind of like that blind guy did. She could see Serizawa, sort of. The energy that made him up, anyway. Vaguely person shaped. If she ever saw that blind guy again she'd have to ask him how well he could see with his powers. After she said she was sorry, of course, because bad guy or not she felt bad beating up a blind person.

"It's a surprise." Said Serizawa

"What kind of surprise?" asked Mob, her mind going to that place where it shouldn't again. Not being able to see was…something…

"Not that kind of surprise. We're at work." Said Serizawa. Oh. Right. He could read her aura. She blushed. He took her hand and led her up the stairs.

"Serizawa, I'm going to fall down the stairs if I can't see." Said Mob. She felt herself being lifted with his powers.

"Mob, I will never, ever, let anything bad happen to you." Said Serizawa seriously. He meant that. If he had to stand by her side like he had stood by Suzuki's and keep her safe then he would. He'd pick her up if she needed it, put her down if she needed it, and smack people around with his umbrella if she ever needed it. Not that he wanted to. He would never let harm to come her. She was his.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you either, Serizawa, but why am I blindfolded?" asked Mob. Serizawa had blindfolded her because he had seen this in a movie before. Not those kinds of movies, he told himself, this was not one of those kinds of movies and she wouldn't like things like that anyway because she wasn't like that, no this had been in one of those romantic movies she liked.

"You'll see. It's a surprise." Said Serizawa as he used his powers to carry her up the stairs. She was so small and light he could have carried her easily in his arms. Actually…he used his powers to put her in his arms.

"Serizawa!" she laughed. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head before he opened the door with his powers. He walked up the last few steps with her, it was more dangerous than he thought that it would be, and he put her down right inside of the office. Master Reigen was looking at him like he was crazy. He stood up. Serizawa put a finger to his lips. This was actually from one of his favorite movies. He had decided, when he was younger, that he'd do something like this is he ever met a girl who loved him. Of course that had just been a fantasy from when he was…her age? The years tended to blend together. Of course now fantasy was reality.

He spun her around twice and let her feel her away around. She used his powers to nudge her away from things that could hurt her. He smiled as she walked around with her hands stretched out in front of her.

"I play this with Ritsu before. What am I looking for? If it's a plate of noodle and you're going tell me it's worms I'm not falling for it." Said Mob with a laugh.

"I saw this in a movie, before. Keep walking, I'll tell you if you're close." Said Serizawa

"Close to what?" asked Mob as she walked slowly with both hands in front of herself.

"Your surprise, and it's not noodles." Said Serizawa

"What's happening here?" asked Reigen watching the scene fold out in front of him He'd seen this in a movie before, too. A romantic comedy.

"I'm looking for something. It's like a game, Master. Ritsu and I used to play this when we were little. Tell me if I'm hot or cold." Said Mob

"Warm." Said SerizawaShe could feel him nudging her away from something. Oh. The dip in the floor. She was near the electric kettle then. Yes. She could smell the tea. If she turned right she'd end up at her desk. If she turned left she'd end up at Master Reigen's desk.

"Less warm." Said Serizawa. She was smiling, she seemed so happy. Good. That was all he wanted, her happiness. Thank God for movies, they had all the best ideas.

"What about now?" said Mob with a laugh, one of her laughs. She never laughed out loud, well sometimes she's giggled, but it was more of a rapid exhale. She heard the familiar squeaking of shoes. She turned left.

"Even less warm." Said Serizawa. She was walking towards Master Reigen now. He was giving them a weird look, Serizawa had never seen him look like that before. She walked with both hands outstretched until she felt…warmth. Cloth. Buttons. A chest. She kept her hands there for a moment.

Reigen Arataka, for a moment, forgot how to breathe. A few minutes ago Serizawa had practically bolted from his desk saying that he would be right back. Then he had heard voices, Serizawa's and Mob. He caught only a few words, the barest snatches of whatever it was that they were talking about, before Serizawa had **carried** her in.

She had let Serizawa carry her in.

He did not want her in another man's arms.

But this was Serizawa, he didn't count.

She was blindfolded, too, with Serizawa's tie. She was smiling, not even her little smile. She had let herself be spun around and now, apparently, it was an office wide game of blind man's bluff.

Her hands were on his chest. She was close, so close. They hadn't been this close in so long…not since that day. He could smell her, her shampoo. Flowery. Something else too…plastic? Plastic and…aftershave? Huh?

Huh?

She kept her hands there. She just stood for a moment. He could feel her, he could see her, and he couldn't move. He couldn't even breathe. He couldn't look up from her. The blush spreading across her cheeks. The way her upper teeth bit down on her lower lip. Even her breathing was enthralling. Deeper, slightly.

"Ice cold." Said Serizawa in a tone that Reigen had never heard from him before. Reigen took a step back and ended up bumping against his desk. He sat back down and pretended to be busy on his laptop. He made an effort not to look at her as she stumbled blindly through the office. He made an effort not to think about her because he couldn't because it would be **wrong** to think about her like that.

Mob felt Serizawa nudging her towards…dip in the floor…her desk. This office was new, the old one burned down. This whole place was new, she didn't know it yet. The dips in the floor, the placement of the furniture, she still couldn't navigate what was around. Unfamiliar. The only familiar thing there was Master Reigen….and Serizawa.

Serizawa was nudging her to where he needed her to go. She had run into Master Reigen and just sort of…stood there. For a moment he had wanted to…but no. Master Reigen did not think about her like that. Mob certainly didn't think about Master Reigen like that. Mob only thought about him like that. She was his girlfriend. Not Reigen's. His.

He nudged her until she was in front of her desk. She stood with her hands out and, finally, found the bag.

"It feels like you." Said Mob as she felt something plastic in her hands. Long, no, tall. Handles at the top. Oh! A birthday bag! But it wasn't her birthday…..

"Here." Said Serizawa. He pulled her blindfold off. Her eyes were still closed. She leaned back into him a little. He wanted to turn her around and kiss her, once again from a movie, but he didn't. He was at work and his boss/only adult friend was there. He shouldn't have kissed her in the stairwell either, he knew that, but it had been hard not to. She was just so…perfect. She small and warm and she had let him kiss her in public before and if it were up to her he'd kiss her every moment of every day but he couldn't because they had lives and stuff but for three days he could and it would be **amazing **and-

"Can I open it?" asked Mob she held the bag in her hands. She looked over at Master Reigen. He was super busy with something. What it was she did not know. She wished that he would look over, to look at her the way Serizawa was looking at her.

"Of course you can, Mob, it's a gift for you….I hope you like it." Said Serizawa. He stood a little less close to her, just a little, because maybe they had been closer than was socially acceptable. He could feel Master Reigen looking at him.

"What is it?" asked Mob as she felt it through the bag. Two things, she could feel. They both felt like Serizawa.

"Mob, just open it already." Said Reigen more snappishly than he had planned. What did Serizawa get her? Why? Because they were friends? But that hadn't been…that whole exchange had seemed a bit beyond the platonic.

Did Serizawa have a crush on Mob?

No. That was insane and Reigen should have committed himself for even thinking that. Serizawa was thirty one and he had a girlfriend.

Mob nodded and pulled out the tissue paper first. White and soft. She'd fold it into a flower, later, like when she was little. After the tissue paper came something big and kind of heavy. She pulled it out, slowly, because she was excited. The pencil cup on her desk was rattling a little, she didn't want to accidentally break whatever it was. She pulled it from the bag, put it on her desk, and stared.

Serizawa's heart stopped. She didn't like it. She was being so quiet because she didn't like it. She'd say it was dumb and that she thought that he was dumb and then she'd go from him because he was so dumb and she'd find someone else, someone better, and they'd go their separate ways because if she could go her separate ways from someone like Master Reigen then, of course, she'd go her separate ways from him and-

"…..this is for me….?" Asked Mob softly, almost inaudibly. This was an EVA. This looked like unit 1….sort of. Not purple and green. Pink, bubble gum. Electric blue. The colors of her aura. The more she looked the more she could see that it was different. Built more femininely. Like a girl EVA.

Which made sense, of course, because all EVAs had the souls of their pilot's dead mothers inside and the angels that they were cloned from were genderless so, therefore, because of the female souls all EVA units were female.

She had told Serizawa that. He remembered.

"What the hell is that…?" asked Reigen. Serizawa had built her a plastic model. He knew that robot. After his and Mob's little talk he had done some cramming on the subject of her new favorite show. That looked like the main guy's robot, just recolored. Or maybe it was red haired girl's robot, because it looked vaguely female. Did robots need a gender? No, wait, they were clones of angels…Mob had a theory about that. What was it? Whatever it was Serizawa apparently remembered.

Serizawa remembered and he made her that robot…

"Unit four. Well, I call it unit four. You can call it whatever you want. I just saw it, well not this specifically, and thought that you would like it so I reshaped the plastic for you…but if you don't like it I understand! I mean-" said Serizawa. Had he screwed up? Maybe flowers and candy were staple gifts for a reason. Maybe he should have asked Master Reigen. Maybe he had been asking Master Reigen too much. Someone else who knew about women. Shimazaki? No, they weren't that good of friends. Minigeshi? No, he would have just said get her flowers. She must have hated it. That was why she was being so quiet and-

"EVA mark fours are from the third movie. They're autonomous EVAs, and they don't look like this. But thank you, Serizawa, this is so cool…" said Mob as she hovered her hands over it. She couldn't touch it. If she touched it then she might break it and she couldn't break such a nice gift. The best gift that she had ever gotten.

"I know but this is non-canonical. I mean, I always imagined you with the main cast so you would be unit four. You know, because unit three was possessed by an angel and then the pilot died. In the manga. So you would be unit four. So I made you this. There's something else, too, in the bag…but if you don't like it-" said Serizawa. He had imagined her in the main cast, sometimes, because she imagined herself there. She had told him about how when she was little she would imagine herself as an EVA pilot. The way she talked…it had been something that she really wanted. She hadn't been allowed to have it, though, and not just because EVA wasn't real. Her mom didn't want her to like it because it wasn't for girls. Not all moms were super accommodating like his was…

Mob reached into the bag and felt something smaller and also made of plastic. She didn't play the guess what it was game this time. She just pulled it out. She stared at it. At her. At tiny her.

Tiny her in a pink plug suit.

"That's you…I mean of course you know it's you! I mean that's what you would look like if you were an EVA pilot. I just wanted to….to make you happy so I made that. It used to be an Asuka figurine, I needed one with long enough hair…and you were your hair down a lot…and I just made her look like you…well Rei looks more like you but Asuka had the longer hair-" said Serizawa. Making tiny Mob had been the hardest part. Getting her expression, that non expression she always wore, right. Painting the eyes. Expressively non-expressive. Getting the hair to set right. It was thick and black and shiny and plastic did not do her justice. He thought that he had gotten pretty close, though.

"That looks….just like Mob…" said Reigen. He had gotten up, now, to see what they were hovering over now. It was Mob. Mob in miniature. Standing in that stick straight way she stood…her face perfectly placid….her hair long and thick….her fingers long and thin….every last detail. Even the way…no. Reigen, don't think about it. Don't think about how she looks like **that.** Don't think about the swell of her breast, the way her waist flares out into her hip, the way her collar bone just out like that…don't think about all the little things you've stared at and committed to memory about her.

That Serizawa, apparently, has as well.

"Yes, Master, that's the point. That's me if I piloted this EVA. There's even a little NERV logo on my plug suit….wow….thank you so much….thank you.." said Mob. She turned around and hugged Serizawa. Both of her arms could barely span him. He held her back, tightly. She didn't mind.

This had been so thoughtful.

Of course her EVA would be the same color as her aura. Auras were basically AT fields anyway. Of course it would have been a custom built model just for her. Unit 0 had been a prototype, unit 1 had been the final product, and after that they had made improvements. Of course she would have had her EVA colored like her aura. Asuka got hers painted red because she wanted it red. Of course her plug suit would have been pink, too. The blue in her AT field, her aura, was the other Shigeko. That was why it was a different color and only overtook the pink when she let the other her have control. She would not let the other her have control when she piloted her EVA, it would mess up her synch tests. Wow…Serizawa had even drawn her excited face on it…not that she usually had much expression.

Serizawa noticed.

Serizawa listened.

Serizawa remembered.

She had never had a person listen to her like this. Remember what she said. She had never even had a person do something like this for her, before. It was…

Amazing.

"I'm so glad you like it! I would have given it to you sooner but it took me a while to reinforce it enough. Now you can lose control but it won't break. I would have given it to you, later, too, but I wanted to see you open it as soon as possible. This was you can take it home with you and put it in your room…or wherever! I've never been to your house so I don't know where you keep things like this…I'm so happy you're happy…" said Serizawa putting his arm across her back. She was so small and there and warm and happy and if Master Reigen wasn't standing there he would have picked her up and held her and kissed her and never let her go-

But he had to let her go. Her phone had started ringing. She answered it quickly.

"Hi mom….uh-huh…but I just got here….ok…I'm coming. Bye." Said Mob hanging up. Right. Mom and dad's trip. All weekend. Just her and Serizawa all weekend.

It seemed pretty great, actually.

"Heading home, Mob?" asked Reigen after swallowing a few times. Swallowing what he had wanted to say. Questions he had wanted to ask. Questions like 'Why the hell is Serizawa making you gifts?' and 'Why the hell are you letting him hold you like that?' etcetera.

Questions that Reigen didn't want the answer to.

"Yes. My mom called…but I don't want to go…" said Mob softly. She wanted to be near them, the both of them…but she would see Serizawa later…but she wanted to…what did she want?

"It's alright. I'm thinking of calling it a day, anyway." Said Reigen. The atmosphere was too weird, here. He needed space. He needed to think, to process, because his mind was going to some strange and upsetting places.

There was nothing going on between Mob and Serizawa.

"But what about the clients?" asked Serizawa. It wasn't even four o'clock yet. They could always get a walk in.

"They'll live." Said Reigen with a dismissive wave of his hand. He needed time to himself, that was all. Time to get these crazy thoughts out of his head. Serizawa did not have a thing for Mob. Mob did not have a thing for Serizawa. Nobody had a thing for anyone and everything was platonic and that while exchange had been platonic and Reigen was only imagining things because he was so starved, romantically. He was so starved for someone's romantic attention that he was imaging things that just weren't there.

Yes, that was it.

Strictly Platonic.

Mob and Serizawa were strictly platonic.

They had to be.


	9. Words from the Heart

"Now don't touch the stove." Said Hana Kageyama as her children stood before her looking like the little angels she wished that they were.

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu as once

"Don't answer the door for anyone." Said Hana

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu. Mob wasn't planning on being home, anyway, and Sho always let himself in through Ritsu's window.

"Keep the blinds closed and stay away from the windows you two. I don't want either of you getting kidnapped." Said Hana

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu

"Remember to turn the taps off when you're done with them, don't flood the house again, Shigeko." Said Hana watching her daughter's face. Calm and placid. Normal.

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu like a couple of skipping CDs.

"I've left you plenty of food in the fridge. Use the microwave but don't accidentally leave any metal in it, Shigeko. Don't try to make eggs in it again, Shigeko. Also don't try to make any more mug cakes, Ritsu." Said Hana

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu again in the same tone. Mob resisted the urge to tell her mom that she had only forgotten spoons in the microwave a couple times back when she was little and of course she wasn't going to do any more microwave cookery. She didn't, though, because she wanted mom and dad out of the house n-o-w NOW. Ritsu was on the same page as his sister. Sho would come by through the window and probably start calling out Ritsu's name and telling him to get upstairs and…whatever he had planned…also it was Sho who kept on trying to cook cake in the microwave, not him! No, no. Don't fight.

"You can order one movie each from the pay per view site but no new releases and nothing R15+ either for you, Ritsu. You're still too young." Said Hana. She expected some protest but found none. None. That was refreshing. Her son could be so stubborn when he wanted to…as could her daughter.

"Yes mom." Said Ritsu and Mob at once again. Periodically Rits's eyes would dart to the clock on the wall. Mob stared straight forward. She wouldn't be home at all so she wouldn't say anything about the fact that she was old enough to watch a 15+ movie.

"And don't play your game's consoles all weekend. I want to see that homework done by the time your father and I get back. Ritsu, help your sister if she needs it." Said Hana

"Yes mom." Said Mob and Ritsu. Mob calm as ever but Ritsu with a slight tone. He was fourteen, not four. He could stay home alone. She gave them the same speech every single year and every single year nothing happened.

"And no guests, that's a hard rule, but especially for you Ritsu. I know you like your friend but he's like a monsoon whenever he comes through here and I won't be around to pick up after you two. I don't want any of your friends coming and going all weekend while your father and I aren't here to supervise. You both know not to go out, either, but mostly you, Shigeko. You know why. No leaving this house unless it's on fire, the both of you." Said Hana. There. The biggest rule. Her children had friends now, besides each other. She knew that Shigeko had a boyfriend hidden away somewhere. A mother knew. The missing emergency contraception pill, the late nights out, the little looks she'd get sometimes. It was probably Ritsu's friend that came around all the time, the little red haired boy. Or maybe that blond boy they hung around sometimes. Some boy had captured her daughter's heart, among other things, and there was nothing Hana could do about it. It wasn't like she could forbid Shigeko from doing the things she did. A girl found a way, Hana knew she certainly did when she was young, and Shigeko wasn't an average girl. Thank God Ritsu hadn't opened his eyes to girls yet. He still spent all of his time with his best friend. Good boy. At least the worst she had to worry about with her son was him leaving a mess.

"Mom, we get it." Said Ritsu. Sho could be a very good house guest…when nobody knew he was around. He only wrecked the house a couple of times. Mob nodded. She didn't say 'yes mom' because then she would have been lying if she said that.

"Well I just have to make sure, I want there to be house for us to come back to." Said Hana. She could have sworn she saw her son smiling at that.

"There will be. We won't burn it down." Said Mob not trying to make Ritsu laugh, just remembering what happened the last time mom and dad went away on a trip. Sho was more like a wildfire than a monsoon.

"Hana, let's get this show on the road! They're good kids, I'm sure that they'll have cleaned up long after whatever wild party they're planning on throwing ends." Said their father Ichimaro. Hana sighed. She hadn't covered everything that could possibly go wrong. The last thing she needed was one of her daughter's patented 'I didn't know I wasn't allowed to' statements.

"Don't worry mom, we won't do that." Said Mob. She wanted her parents to get in the road so that she could get on the road. She had wanted space from Serizawa because he smothered her but now she was…she was starting to appreciate his love, even if it could be kind of smothering sometimes.

"Everything's going to be fine, you can trust us." Said Ritsu. He wasn't planning on burning the house down again, at least. There. That was something.

"I trust you both." Said Hana before she hugged her children. Shigeko was stiff as ever and a little slow to return the hug. Hana took in a deep sniff. Cigarettes, as usual, but something else. Plastic? Aftershave, too, it smelled like. She had stopped in at her job that day.

Ritsu on the other hand smelled like he had just taken a shower. Odd for him. He always showered in the morning. He seemed a little overeager to get her out of the house too…a girl? No. Ritsu would have definitely brought a girl home if he had a girlfriend…but then again he had been out until all hours lately….

She'd ask Shigeko, later, if Ritsu had any girls over. Her daughter couldn't tell a lie. One of her better traits. Ritsu would tell her, too, if Shigeko left the house. He probably wouldn't even let her get to the front door. He was a good brother like that.

After mom and dad left Ritsu and Mob both breathed out a sigh of relief.

"I thought they'd cancel their whole trip." Said Mob. Mom had always made her rules speech before they left but it had never gone on for so long before.

"She's just worried about us. You, mostly." Said Ritsu

"Me? Why?" asked Mob. She felt another aura enter her range. Sho. Of course he was planning on using Ritsu's window.

"Because you keep staying out all night." Said Ritsu. What if something happened to her out there? What if someone hurt her and he wasn't there to save her?

"I come back around ten. You know that. You keep on following me around. You or Sho. Please don't follow me at all this weekend, brother." said Mob not meaning anything but the flat fact of it.

"I won't even though I should because you keep being so mysterious about where you're going." Said Ritsu with an edge to his voice. He felt something familiar enter his perception. Sho. Coming closer. He needed to stop arguing with his sister but…it would be better if she was out of the house but…it wasn't safe for her out there.

"I am not being mysterious. You're being nosy." Said Mob. What was he so worried about? All the bad things that happened to girls? After what happened with Claw he should have realized that he didn't have anything to be afraid of. She was the big sister. She should have been worried about him, her little brother.

"No I'm not. You won't tell me where you're going or who you're going to be with or-" said Ritsu

"You sound just like mom." Said Mob

"I'm just worried about you." Said Ritsu

"Well don't be. I'm not going to be anywhere dangerous and I won't do anything wrong. Ok?" asked Mob

"I'm just….what if something happens to you?" asked Ritsu

"Ritsu, I saved the world. I'll be fine." Said Mob

"But why can't you tell me where you'll be?" asked Ritsu

"Because you'll make a big deal out of it." Said Mob

"….you're going to…." Said Ritsu unable to finish his sentence because, that was his big sister. Ick. But…but why? No. No way. Crazy thoughts. He was thinking crazy thoughts.

"I won't ask if you don't ask." Said Mob. She didn't want him to know and she did not want to know. Therefore nobody would know anything and nobody would talk about it.

"Wait, you're actually-" said Ritsu

"Brother. I won't ask if you won't ask." Said Mob simply. There. Mutual respect for each other's privacy.

"Who is he?" asked Ritsu. What guy was taking advantage of his sister? He'd kill him. He'd kill him, chop him up, dissolve him in the bathtub, and then hide the body-goo in a hole in the backyard and plant a tree over it.

"Ritsu, I'm going to start asking you questions." Said Mob. She did not want to talk about this. She did not want to get into this. She knew that Ritsu would freak out, he always freaked out over everything, and then his weekend would be ruined and her weekend would be ruined.

"Who is he? Is he your boyfriend? Is it someone I know? Is it-" said Ritsu

"What are you and Sho going to do tonight?" Said Mob. There. How did he like the nosy questions?

"…..what….?" asked Ritsu turning a shade of red that Mob, honestly, didn't think was a healthy color for a person to be.

"I said that I wouldn't ask if you didn't ask. You asked so I asked. There. Now we're fair. I won't answer if you won't answer. Ritsu, I'm not going to do anything dangerous and you don't have to worry about me at all. Ok? I already told that a million times. Besides, I should be the one worrying about you. You're younger than me." Said Mob

"I'm not…it's different. It's more dangerous for you because you're a girl." Said Ritsu. She was strong but there were still a million and one things that could happen to her. She was nice and trusted everyone and went along with everything and had this weird, self-sacrificing streak and he needed to keep her safe because she could end up getting hurt again. He was never there, was he? He wasn't there for her the first time they fought Claw or the second. Hell, he had been the one to help burn down the house to freak her out enough to, as Sho said, 'light a fire under her ass' so that she would help out. He was her brother and it was his job to protect her. He had done his job so poorly in the past….

"I don't think that there's anyone in the world stronger than me. Besides, I have someone to keep me safe. Someone that isn't you. You don't have to worry about me. Just enjoy your weekend, ok? I'll be fine." Said Mob

"Can't you just tell me who?" asked Ritsu

"No because I know that you'll freak out and I don't want that." Said Mob

"I will not." Said Ritsu

"Will too. You freak out sometimes. It happens." Said Mob

"So do you." Said Ritsu

"Yes, I do, you're right. Not about your life, though. I've never freaked out about your life, not even when you started dating Sho. He's upstairs by the way." Said Mob

"I know, I can sense him." said Ritsu. Eavesdropping most likely. Not that Ritsu had any room to throw stones.

"Then why not just go upstairs and be with the person who you love and who loves you? I'll be fine, really." Said Mob

"Yeah! She'll be fine! Now get up here and help me build the Hamster Manor!" called Sho from the top of the stairs. Ritsu groaned. Right, his hamster. Mob's eyes lit up. Sunflower was here!

"I'll help!" said Mob. She went upstairs. Sho had a new hamster, he had told everyone who would listen. Her name was Sunflower. Mob had only seen pictures before and she was so cute. Mob liked cute things, a fatal attraction to cuteness Master Reigen had said back when she was little and tried to take a stray cat back to the office with her. She could feel Ritsu following her. She made it to the top of the stairs and found Sho in Ritsu's room fitting together colorful plastic tubes. A hamster in a plastic tank next to him laid down in its hamster grass stuff.

"Why did you bring her?" asked Ritsu. He'd seen Sunflower before. A cute little puffball of a thing that, in Ritsu's opinion, Sho spoiled. Case and point the massive number of colored tubes covering his floor.

"I don't trust mom to feed her what she likes and Serizawa said that he was busy all this weekend." Said Sho as he tried to think up the best configuration for his darling's home in his other darling's room. Ritsu wasn't as attuned to auras as Sho was, having spent his entire life around other espers and having been one himself since as long as he could remember, so he didn't notice the way his sister's aura flared out at the mention of Serizawa. Sho did. Now to say something or keep it to himself, that was the question….

"What does she eat?" asked Mob as she sat down to look at the little puffball in it's tank. It was so cute. She hadn't taken Sho as the nurturing type at first but he really took to hamster ownership. Mom never let her have pets, too irresponsible mom had said. She'd be more likely to freak out with her powers instead of forgetting to feed it.

"I like to cook for her but she mostly eats hamster pellets. That's why I like to cook for her, those taste so gross. Usually it's some kind of salad but I make her pancakes too, sometimes. Ooh! She really likes little sandwiches. Don't you? Don't you like sandwiches? Doesn't my little baby love sandwiches?" said Sho to his hamster. Ritsu smiled just a little. Sho was, in a word, adorable sometimes.

"Are you eating hamster food again?" asked Ritsu

"No, because it's gross. I'm not a weirdo. That was just the one time. Sheesh." Said Sho

"Again?" asked Mob blinking. Sho certainly had a weird definition of what counted as weird.

"Don't ask." Said Ritsu

"I just wanted to know what it tasted like. It turns out that it's nasty. Not just the kind I got her, literally every kind of hamster pellet is nasty." Said Sho

"So that's why you're going to cook your hamster's meals?" asked Ritsu shaking his head

"Yeah. That's why I can't trust my mom to feed her. She doesn't want to make the tiny salads and pancakes and stuff." Said Sho

"Can't you just make one big pancake and cut it up?" asked Mob. That sounded a lot easier than making tiny food. Not that she knew a lot about cooking. Serizawa did all the cooking. He was good at it, too. Maybe she could learn from him. Maybe she could cook him something, too. That was what friends…girlfriends…did after all.

"No, they have to be tiny. That way she knows that she's loved." Said Sho. When you loved someone you cooked specifically for them. That was why Sunflower got tiny pancakes and Ritsu got human sized pancakes. Sized for humans to eat, not the size of humans. Though with his powers he could make a pancake the size of a human. Getting it to weigh as much as a human would be difficult, though, because human flesh was denser than pancake flesh, dough, pancake dough. He'd figure it out, how to make a pancake Ritsu. Then Ritsu would wake up and be so surprised and then he'd be all 'I love you Sho you're the coolest' and then he'd write about it in the diary that he didn't know the Sho definitively knew about but suspected that he did about two Tuesdays ago when he had the dream about falling again.

"Mom says that we can't use the stove while she's gone, just so you know." Said Mob. She didn't know that you had to actually make food for pets. Pets were kind of like kids like that. You had to feed them and take care of them and love them or the government said that you couldn't have them and they were taken away and given to families that could. Or they died. Whichever came first. If she had a pet or a kid she would take good care of it.

"Who needs a stove? I can make her breakfast with pyro-kinesis." Said Sho with a shrug

"Not in my house. We just rebuilt it." Said Ritsu

"What, are you afraid that I'll burn it down again? That was a one time thing. No repeats, no reruns." asked Sho

"Maybe I think you'll burn my house down, Sho. Maybe I just don't want to watch you spend all day cooking for a hamster." Said Ritsu

"Don't be jealous. I'll make you breakfast too." Said Sho. Ritsu blushed and looked away. Right. It wasn't like Sho hadn't slept over before, he came and went at all hours of the day and night like that, but this was the first time that they would be well and truly alone together. Ritsu looked at the bags piled on his bed. Yeah, Sho was staying here and this was happening. Mob followed the path her brother's eyes took.

"Are you moving in?" asked Mob. He certainly had a lot of bags. She should pack too, she thought. But what? She had never packed for a multiday stay anywhere before. Maybe three changes of day clothes and two changes of pajamas? Or more clothes in case hers got dirty? Or maybe less clothes because she wasn't exactly planning on doing anything that required clothing….

The window slammed open and shut.

"Sorry!" said Mob. Right, don't think about that now.

"Well it looks like you don't want me to leave so, yeah." Said Sho

"Hell no. Weekend only." said Ritsu. Knowing Sho he might have been serious. Mom and dad, mostly mom, would absolutely notice if Sho moved in and then he'd have to explain a ton of stuff that he didn't want to get into.

"What? You don't like me anymore?" said Sho. Ritsu knew that tone, he wasn't kidding anymore. He sighed.

"You know my mom and dad wouldn't let you. My parents aren't like your parents." Said Ritsu trying to choose his words carefully.

"But you would want me to stay forever, right?" asked Sho

"You know that I would if I could but I can't." Said Ritsu

"Cool! Ok, I'm fine. Now help me put this thing together. Sunflower hates that tank." Said Sho

"No way are you cluttering up my room with this. If you build that thing there won't be any room to walk around." Said Ritsu

"Then where am I supposed to put her? She needs space to run around." Said Sho

"You should have thought about that before you brought her here." Said Ritsu

"She can stay in my room, Sho. I won't be here anyway. I don't want to be here when you guys do couple stuff." Said Mob

"You're a great big sis, Ritsu's big sis. I am forever in your debt. Anything you want I'll get you. Money, power, men….women? It shall be yours." Said Sho in his most serious voice. She truly was awesome. Now Ritsu wouldn't be all self-conscious and stuff. Ritsu, not Sho. Sho was never self-conscious.

"Don't follow me around anymore. That's all I want." Said Mob looking at Ritsu.

"Ok. I can do that. No following you around. Got it. You got it, Ritsu? No more following your sister around. No more camping out outside of Reigen's apartment. Got it?" asked Sho. He had followed Reigen around all of yesterday to make up for the stalking time that Ritsu would miss out on. In the course of those hours Sho had come to a startling discovery. Reigen Arataka was kind of boring for a guy who walked around with his pockets full of salt.

"Fine, I won't follow you…but if you would just tell me-" said Ritsu

"I'm going to go pack now. Sho you can build your hamster house in my room. It was nice seeing you again." Said Mob leaving Ritsu's room. No way was she having that argument again. What was he so worried about? He was smothering her, not literally though, because that would be mean. What was it with the guys in her life and smothering her?

Serizawa smothered her too, but it was becoming a nice kind of smothering. He just wanted to show that he loved her. She looked over at the plastic bag on her desk. He liked showing her how much he loved her. That was why he was always trying to hold her hand and kiss her. That was why he told her that he loved her so often. It was nice, smothering sometimes, but nice.

He loved her.

He didn't lie.

That was what mattered. Master Reigen had…he hadn't been telling the truth. He didn't love her. If he had loved her then he would have been with her. Serizawa loved her. Serizawa wanted to be with her. That was all that mattered.

She wanted to be with him.

Mob filled her gym bag with three days' worth of clothes. Three days. Two nights and three days. She had never been away from home for that long. She hoped that she packed enough clothes. This would be nice, though…and not just for bed reasons. Talking reasons, too. Hanging out reasons. Friend reasons.

But they were more than friends.

Girlfriend. She was Serizawa's girlfriend and…and she…liked it. Having someone there with her. Having someone who liked to be around her and didn't lie to her. Someone who wanted to share himself with her. Someone who let her share herself with him.

She needed more than sex to nourish their relationship, but she did need sex.

It felt good.

It was a need, kind of like hunger. Knowing more about what happened, what it felt like, how amazing it could be, made her want it more. Want him more. The way he felt. How he could make her feel. How Master Reigen would never make her feel.

But it wasn't just about that.

Master Reigen had pushed her away. Serizawa would never push her away. Master Reigen also sort of talked at her, a lot of the time, but Serizawa talked with her…or let her talk at him. Either way she liked to be heard. So did he.

Mob stuffed down what was maybe more than enough clothes. Redundancy was important, Master Reigen had told her before when they were on a job once. Mob thought that they had taken too many snacks, they were out in the country, but Master Reigen said that you had to be redundant when you packed in case anything happened.

Then a bird flew down and took his sandwich.

So he had been right.

Mob hoped that she had packed enough. What else did she need? She had never stayed overnight away from home before, not unless her whole family was going somewhere, and in those cases mom packed for her. Well Mob wasn't a kid and she could pack for herself. She knew what she would need…

Toothbrush.

Hairbrush.

Phone Charger.

There. Not that hard. She was not a kid. She could take care of herself. She was not too young. She knew what she was doing. Master Reigen was wrong. She was not a kid. She was young but not a child.

Medicine too. Right. Don't forget that. Not a kid anymore.

She slide the circular pill case into her bag. There. Packed. Packed and ready to go. Any minute now.

Maybe Sho needed help putting the Hamster Mansion together. Maybe Ritsu wanted to argue some more. Maybe there were dishes that needed doing. Did it look like rain out there? A few clouds. Maybe she should wait until the storm came and passed. Yup.

"Hey, Ritsu's big sis, you packed yet?" asked Sho as her door opened. He walked in with several colorful plastic tubes and boxes following him.

"Yes. Do you need help? I can help you with that." Said Mob as the tubes began to assemble themselves. Sho shook his head.

"No, I can do it myself. It's a lot easier in your room, you don't have anything in here." Said Sho

"I can still help." Said Mob

"I don't need it. Go on, go have fun. With Serizawa, right?" asked Sho. Mob's aura slammed into his in surprise. The plastic tubes hit the ground with a clatter.

"What happened?" called Ritsu from his room

"Nothing. Your sister just had a Ritsu's sister moment." Said Sho

"Sho…" said Ritsu in a tone that Mob couldn't read but Sho knew well. Right. Nobody could ever even say a word against his big sis.

"I'm fine." Said Mob. She did not need Ritsu listening in on this conversation. She closed her door. Sho stared at her. She stared at Sho.

"So am I right? Do I win?" asked Sho

"Win what?" asked Mob

"Nothing, I was kidding. So, was I right?" asked Sho hopefully.

"You don't know if you're right?" asked Mob. Could she lie? But what could she say? Sho was friends with Serizawa and if she said that she wasn't Serizawa's girlfriend then it would get back to him and he'd be super hurt.

"I think I am. You see, Ritsu's big sis, I not only possess unparalleled psychic powers but unparalleled powers of deduction, too." Said Sho as he began to pace the room, careful not to step on Sunflower's hamster mansion, and smoked an imaginary pipe like an old timey detective guy.

"Oh. I didn't know that about you." Said Mob simply.

"Well I do. Anyway I had it all figured out a while ago. Well, since Ritsu and I started following you around and hung out around Serizawa's place. Your auras get really weird and I thought 'hey, they're probably doing stuff in there' and then I thought 'but this is Serizawa and girls scare him' and then I thought 'but this is Ritsu's big sis and who could say no to her?' but I didn't know for sure and I didn't want Ritsu to end up getting his ass kicked if he tried to mess with Serizawa." said Sho

"…..Sho…." said Mob. What could she say? She hated telling lies and she especially wouldn't lie to Sho because lying to Sho was like lying to Ritsu. Also she couldn't even think of a good lie right now anyway.

"Because as awesome as Ritsu is he could still get super hurt if Serizawa exploded. Trust me on this. But I think that you're good for him. He's been really happy, lately. I won't go and tell Ritsu on my own, he's kind of weird when it comes to you. Probably because you're a girl. Like, if some guy was trying to get with my mom I'd be weirded out, I wouldn't try to mess him up or anything but I'd be grossed out." Said Sho

"…thank you for not saying anything." Said Mob softly

"You're welcome! Anytime! Thanks for not saying anything, too. I know that you guys' parents don't know about…yeah…and it sucks but…I get it. Your mom's really intense. That's why you don't say anything about Serizawa, right? Because your parents would freak out? I get it. Anyway, be nice to Serizawa and if you do anything to hurt him I'll mess you up. Heh. See, I do a good Ritsu." Said Sho. He laughed, which was Mob's cue that she needed to laugh too, even though she wasn't entirely sure what was so funny. It was that way with Sho. He was hard to read by other people's standards so he was extra hard to read by Mob's standards.

"…I don't want to fight you…" said Mob softly

"Obviously we don't want to fight. We both know who would win, and I won't go easy on you like my dad did." Said Sho putting an arm around her and walking her to her window.

"It didn't seem like he was going on easy on me." Said Mob. Serizawa had gone easy on her, she knew it. She could have gotten seriously hurt but all he did was whack her a couple times with his umbrella. He'd done much worse, before. Not that he had given Mob any details.

"Yeah, well, if they ever let him out then you can ask him yourself. Ok, all packed? Got your phone? Keys? Wallet? Girl stuff that I'm not supposed to know about?" asked Sho

"Yes." said mob as Sho stopped her in front of her window.

"Then I'll see you later. Go on, Serizawa's waiting for you. Write me a post card if you're planning on being gone for more than a few months. Goodbye! Farewell!" said Sho pushing Mob into her window frame. Right. That was how Sho got in and out of places. Maybe he wasn't sure that you were supposed to use people's front doors.

"Wait, I should say goodbye to Ritsu-" said Mob

"Sho! What the hell is all of this?!" said Ritsu from his room.

"Yeah, he's kind of busy so…see ya whenever!" said Sho. Mob took a hint, for once in her life, and flew out of her window faster than could be seen. She had no desire to be there when they either argued or got to whatever couple stuff they had planned. She also had no desire to discuss her…relationship…with Sho.

Sometimes you had to run away.

Serizawa sort of wanted to run away. Sort of. Not really. Just….this was…a lot.

He checked over his apartment again. Clean. Too clean? He knew how easy it was to fall back into old habits and every day was a battle to, well, clean up after himself. It was easier, now, though, because he had an excuse. His girlfriend came over all the time and he had to keep it nice for her.

For his girlfriend. His girlfriend who was spending the entire weekend with him! And they didn't have work either which meant that they would be alone together for three uninterrupted days. Three days. Inside. Outside. Her. Him. For three days.

He wanted it to go on forever. He wanted it to be over before it even started.

So much could go wrong. He could mess something up. He knew that people needed a lot of space and stuff. Would she want space from him after this? What if she found out that she didn't like living with him. What if he did something that annoyed her and she decided that she would never live with him and they wouldn't have a forever together and even though it would be so perfect and then they wouldn't be a couple anymore and-

He needed to stop thinking so negatively she had told him that before. He was a good person, she had told him on a night when he felt truly awful, he was a good person and he needed to be easier on himself. She wanted him to be a good person. Good people were positive. He needed to be positive about this. She was going to have a great time, the best time anyone had ever had! Wait, no, too far in the other direction. He was going to make her happy. She was going to enjoy living with him. For three days, he reminded himself. They'd live together for three days. He never thought that anyone would ever want to be with him like this. This would be different from living with his mother, obviously. He'd be the one taking care of her.

He'd make her food and listen to her stories and theories and stuff like that. He'd do whatever she wanted to do because he had to make her happy. There were things he wanted to do, of course, but they didn't matter as much what she wanted to do. She mattered more than he did, he felt like. He knew that it wasn't healthy, feeling like that. She was not Suzuki and he mattered to her. He would not ever hear her say something as horrible as 'I never considered any of you my comrades' even though they had literally spent **every day** together. Mob cared about him and she was his girlfriend and relationships were mutual, as the books said, and she did not matter more than him and-

The walls were shaking. Right, neighbors. He closed the blinds and let himself be in darkness. There was a comfort to the darkness, it sort of swallowed him up, but in a good way. When the room was dark you had no idea how much time was passing. You could just imagine yourself as being the only person in the entire world. You could block it out, the hours, the days. The turning of the world. When the world stopped turning for you then you could take a moment and just **breathe**. This could only last a moment, though, because the blinds had to stay opened until you went to sleep. If you started blocking out the world when you were awake the slipping started and the next thing you knew it had been weeks since you set foot outside and your mother is calling you worried about what's been going on since you missed your weekly check-in phone call.

He opened the blinds. Ok. He was a little better, now. The walls had stopped quaking under the sheer force of his worry. Thank God he hadn't messed anything up. He needed to make it perfect for her. Think about her. Think about how you had to be better for her. Think about how she made you into a better man. Think about how you have to be the man that she deserves. She deserves a man who doesn't go to pieces every ten seconds. She deserves a man who's strong enough to keep her safe. She deserves a man who can keep her happy.

Mob deserved so much better than what he could be.

Mob wanted to be with him.

That was what mattered. She had chosen him out of literally everyone else in the world. Who in the world could ever say no to her? She had chosen him. Him. Serizawa Katsuya. She could have had anybody. Someone with better control over his powers. Someone better looking. Someone more together. Someone who could offer her more than what he could. She could have had literally any man she wanted and she wanted to be with him.

She loved him.

He loved her.

Everything would be ok as long as he remembered that she loved him.

Not Reigen.

And he was a possessive jerk for even thinking that something could be going on between those two.

She had been so close to Reigen today though….and she had lingered there…but he had sounded like a jerk there, too. She was his, not Reigen's. If she wanted Reigen then she could have easily had Reigen. Why would Reigen ever say no to her? Because he didn't have feelings for her, either. Serizawa knew that he was being weird with this. Nobody would take her from him. She chose to be with him. She had chosen him and she was going to be spending the weekend with **him** and not **Reigen**.

So calm down already.

You'll be fine.

Serizawa wished that he could believe that. That everything would be fine. He just couldn't stop thinking about all of the things that weren't fine. The things that worried him. The fact that she had lingered, there, with Reigen. The way that Reigen was looking at her…the fact that she could just leave him at any time…but she wouldn't. Relationships were hard, like this. It was easier, before, not that he would ever want to go back. But it was easier when he was just beholden to himself. Back even further, when he had first tried to rejoin society. When he followed Suzuki around and his only standing orders were 'smack around anyone with violent intent' and he carried out his orders because it was just so nice to feel useful.

Now he had to be useful to her, to make her happy. He had a new job, her boyfriend, and he had to do it well. Well not a job in the work sense but in the whole 'having a role to fill' sense. He had to fill this role for her but it was harder because he had to do so much on his own accord. Like earlier. Thank God for movies. Movies and shows and manga. Oh, and Master Reigen, too. He gave really good advice. He gave good advice and was, obviously, not into Mob. He knew that Mob was his girlfriend. They were friends. Friends did not do that to friends. Serizawa knew that he would never have tried to steal Master Reigen's girlfriend, if he had one, which he didn't. Serizawa felt bad for Reigen about that, he deserved to be happy. What woman would say no to him?

Hopefully Mob.

Don't be possessive.

He could feel her. She was near, very near. Good. Right?

Everything was fine. Everything would be fine. Just stay calm and don't freak out when you see her.

When Mob knocked in his door she hadn't expected to be immediately enveloped in a hug. A tight one.

Maybe she should have. She could see his aura as she came up the elevator in his building. It was all…jumpy…which meant that something was bothering him. For a few moments, a few terrifying moments, Mob thought that Serizawa had figured out how she felt about Master Reigen. How she had felt about Master Reigen. How she currently felt about Master Reigen. The elevator shook when the thought hit her. Mob wondered what Serizawa's neighbors thought about all the shaking in the building. Maybe the neighbors just thought that it was earthquakes. Tiny earthquakes localized on this building.

Not that Mob set out to make those tiny earthquakes. They were just a side effect.

Just like the tiny shake she gave the room when he hugged her. She had just knocked at his door, she had been over enough times to know which apartment was his. It was kind of weird to take the elevator without him but not too bad. Not the weirdest thing about this weekend. Not anywhere close.

This wasn't weird, either. Startling but not weird. He hugged her a lot.

She didn't mind it.

"You're here! I'm so glad to see you!" said Serizawa as he pulled her as close and she could. Something hit the floor. Oh. Her bag. He had hugged her very suddenly, hadn't he?

He let her go.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to just…like that…I'm sorry!" said Serizawa as he let go of Mob just as quickly as he hugged her. Mob reached over and took his hand.

"You feel upset, Serizawa. It's ok. I'm here now. Do you want me to find your umbrella for you?" asked Mob. She took his hand and smoothed down the energy crackling around him. He always felt better when she did that. She was his…girlfriend…and it was her job to make him feel better. She didn't mind.

"No, that's alright. I was just…no. I'm fine." Said Serizawa as she took his hand.

"Are you sure? You still seem upset." Said Mob

"I was just…worried." Said Serizawa

"Did the world feel too big again?" asked Mob. He felt like that, sometimes. Sometimes the world was so big and he was so small. That why was he had gotten a whole new umbrella after his old one got destroyed when he saved Master Reigen's life.

"…sort of." Said Serizawa. Was that it? The world was a big place and it just kept on turning and he could not hide away from it again. It was better now that she was there. Was that what he had been afraid of? Losing her to the world? Her realizing that she could go? That she could do so much better? Or maybe he was just possessive and he needed to knock it off.

"I'll keep you safe, don't worry." Said Mob. She was not little and she was perfectly capable of keeping him safe from all the things that he was afraid of.

"That's my job." Said Serizawa

"We can keep each other safe, then." Said Mob making a concession that she had no plans of following. If saving the world had taught her anything it was that she needed to protect her friends. She used to think that her powers were inconsequential, that they were just another talent that a person could have. Now she knew better, though. She knew that she could save everyone.

Everyone she cared about in this world.

"We can." Said Serizawa making a concession that he had no plans of following. He was supposed to keep her safe, that was his job. That was a job that he knew how to do. He didn't want to have to go back to smacking people around with his umbrella but if anyone ever tried to do anything to hurt her then he would not hesitate. He could not ever stand to see her get hurt again. To see her being hurled through the air. Being tossed through buildings. Being slammed through the ground. No. He could not watch that happen to her again. He would not watch that happen to her again.

She mattered too much to him. She was almost everything that mattered to him in this world.

"If the world is too big then we can just stay inside all weekend." Said Mob. She wouldn't mind it. The two of them, TV, videogames, kissing….other stuff. Yes. This would be a good weekend.

"No! I mean, I want to go outside with you. I mean I think that we should go outside more. I mean we can do whatever you want." Said Serizawa

"No, we can go outside, too, if you want to." Said Mob. They could take one of their long walks. Mom and dad were out of town she didn't have to worry about being seen by one of them on their way home. Ritsu wouldn't be following her around, either. Yes, if Serizawa wanted to take a walk then she would take a walk with him.

"We can do whatever you want to do. Your happiness matters to me." Said Serizawa. She could just up and leave at any time. That was what Reigen had said. Separate ways. If she wanted her space she would take it. She would just take it. His heart stops at the thought.

"What you want matters too." Said Mob. She wasn't bossy like that. She wouldn't make him do only what she wanted. Did he see it that way? They usually ended up doing what she wanted….was she bossy? Would he think that she was…would he go? Reject her? No. He loved her. He loved her and he would never hurt her like that.

"…..thank you." Said Serizawa. Mob was nothing like Suzuki. Mob wanted him to be happy. Mob thought that he mattered. It wasn't just about what she wanted, her happiness. She thought that he mattered even though he needed her a hell of a lot more than she needed him. No. Don't think like that. She's with you because she wants to be.

"You're welcome. I don't know what you're thanking me for but you're welcome." Said Mob

"For being here, with me. For…for everything that you do." Said Serizawa

"Do? I don't really do anything. You're the one who's letting me stay with him. You're the one who does whatever I want when we're together. I should be thanking you, I think, so thank you." Said Mob simply. Serizawa reached up and brushed a stray lock of her hair from her face. His hand lingered on her cheek. He looked down at her. She looked up at him. They held this for a moment before he leaned down and kissed her. This was a slow sort of kiss, not the 'all alone' sort of kisses that Mob's partial to. That doesn't matter, what she's partial to. She shouldn't be so bossy towards him. If he likes to kiss like this then she wouldn't mind. Not that there was anything to mind.

Less boring this time.

"You love me and that's enough." Said Serizawa finding some words as they broke apart. That had been what he had been trying to convey. Was his meaning clear? Did he say it right? He had no idea how to say it. How to convey that she was his everything. He didn't even have all the words for what 'everything' meant. His reason to be better. The reason that he got up and left the house on those days when the world was big and he had to walk out that door with his umbrella clutched in both hands. She was the person he felt the safest around because she accepted him totally and completely. She was all he desired and his will to succeed. But how to say that….

"….kiss me again." Said Mob. She had tried, she really had. How hard was it to say 'I love you, Serizawa'? 'I love you, Katsuya'? Not that she had used his given name or anything. She just couldn't say it. She just couldn't because she had said it before and everything had just gone tumbling down and tumbling down and tumbling down. She was not going to initiate third impact in this relationship. She was not doing that again.

And it was a relationship.

Serizawa didn't need to be told twice. Maybe she had trouble saying it, too. How she felt. She was usually a woman of very few words. Unless she was talking about one of the things she was into she didn't say much with her voice. She spoke through her actions, he thought, and her aura. He could read her clear as day. 'I love you, Katsuya.' That was what she was saying. He kissed her, she deepened it. He had to hunch a little to reach down to her. She had to stretch to reach up to him. Her fingers found his hair, they twisted in his curls. He'd need a haircut soon. Unless she liked his hair better long-ish. He knotted his fingers in her hair. He definitely liked her hair the way it was. Long and soft and pretty and perfect.

"I missed you." Said Mob as they broke apart for air. She did, and not only for this reason. Though it was a good reason.

"You just saw me." Said Serizawa. Did she feel the same way that he did? Did she also have the growing need to be with him? To spend every moment of every day together?

"I know, but I missed you. Things are so much easier when it's just us together." Said Mob. He was honest about the way he felt. He hadn't ever hurt her emotionally and he never would. When they were together it just…made sense…sort of. With Master Reigen….were they ok? She had said that they were ok but…but they weren't. Things were different. She had kissed him. He had pushed her away. Serizawa never pushed her away. He would never push her away or lie to her or anything like that.

She could trust him.

"Easier?" asked Serizawa, his hand finding her lower back. She leaned into him. Safe.

"You say what you mean and mean what you say." Said Mob. He never lied to her. He never told her one thing and did another. He was Serizawa and he did not tell lies. He loved her. He didn't say 'I love you' and then tell her to wait for three years just to buy himself time to find a way to reject her again. Or wait for her to find another person to love. Well she did. She wasn't going to wait around for him to just reject her again.

"You understand me. You're right, you understand me." Said Serizawa, his other hand finding her waist. She did, she really did. She knew just how to calm him down. She always knew just what he needed. When he started to freak out she was always there to pull him back down to Earth. She never dismissed him.

"I do? I think that I do. The you that I see." Said Mob. The Master Reigen that she had seen had loved her and would have been with her when she confessed. The Master Reigen that he saw himself as did not love her and lied to her even though he had **promised** that he wouldn't.

"There's only one me." Said Serizawa simply. There was just him. Himself. She knew him in literally every single way that one human being could know another.

"No, there's the you that you see and the you that I see. I understand the you that I see and I…I like him. I like you." Said Mob reaching up and playing with the buttons on his shirt. Like. An easier word than love. Easier to express.

"I…I like to think that I understand you." Said Serizawa. Her hands were on his chest, an exact replica of her and Reigen earlier.

"I don't think that there's a lot to understand about me." Said Mob

"There is. There's a lot to understand." Said Serizawa

"Not really. I go to school, I go to work, I like milk and cats and anime and manga. That's pretty much it." Said Mob

"You're more than that." Said Serizawa shaking his head.

"I am?" asked Mob

"You're my…my everything. I don't know how to describe it. You just…there's so much to you. The way you care so much about everyone in your life. The way you put everyone else before yourself even if…even if your life is on the line. The way that even though you're the most powerful person in the world you don't let it take you over. The way that…that you chose me out of everyone else in the world…and you could have had anyone else in the world…because you're…you." Said Serizawa. He was still holding her. He couldn't let her go. Had he said something wrong? Had he been weird? Was that a weird thing to say? He was being so quiet she probably thought that he was weird and she'd step back from him and pick up her bag and then walk out the door and out of his life and-

"…I couldn't." said Mob softly

"What?" asked Serizawa

"I couldn't have anybody in the world that I wanted." Said Mob

"You could! You really could! Not that I want you to or anything! Just…just you're amazing and sometimes I think that…that one day you'll realize how amazing you are and…and want to go our separate ways." Said Serizawa. Mob felt her blood run cold. The room shook a bit. Separate ways…no. No. No way.

Mob threw herself against Serizawa. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held onto him. She could not, she would not, go her separate ways from him. She knew how it felt to separate from the person you loved most in the world. She knew what it was like to see him from afar and want to be with him, to help him when he needed it, but knowing that you couldn't. Knowing that you had both had a fight and said such mean things. Convincing yourself that he knew what he was doing, that he was ok. Realizing that he wasn't…but she and Serizawa weren't the same as her in Master Reigen…but she could not put him on that emotional rollercoaster. Serizawa was not the sort of person who would do well on rollercoasters. He was more of a merry-go-round sort of person. She was a merry-go-round person too.

The merry-go-round just went round and round. Easy to understand. Easy to enjoy.

She felt him kissing the top of her head. He held her tight, his hand were both against her back now. He rubbed slow circles on her back as he kissed his way lower. She stretched up. He hunched down. They met in the middle.

"I could never want that, Serizawa. I could never hurt you like that." Said Mob softly. She rested her head against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat. She listened to it for a few moments. Fast. It was always fast when they were like this.

"I know that. I know that you could never hurt me. You had the chance to, before, before you even knew me, but you didn't." said Serizawa. She was not that sort of person. He knew that she was not the sort of person who went around hurting others. It felt good to hear it, though, that she would never hurt him. Not that he ever seriously thought that she would. Not that he ever seriously thought that she would leave him for Reigen. No. That was crazy.

"I would never, ever, hurt you now, either. I know how much it hurts and I won't do that to you." Said Mob

"How much what hurts?" asked Serizawa

"Everything. I know how much everything hurts and I won't do that to you." Said Mob

"….you got hurt?" asked Serizawa. She had been so sad, back when they started this. She had been so sad and he didn't know why….but now he did. Someone had hurt her. Someone had hurt her and…and he would hurt them right back. That was what his job was. He needed to keep her safe. He had to be good for something and that something was keeping her safe.

"…yes." said Mob softly

"By who?" said Serizawa in a tone that she could not read.

"….I don't want to talk about it." Said Mob

"Why? If you got hurt then I'll…I'll keep you safe." Said Serizawa

"Oh. No, it's not that kind of hurt." Said Mob

"Then what kind is it?" asked Serizawa

"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to hurt you." Said Mob. She couldn't hurt him. If she told him what happened she would hurt him. She couldn't tell him how she felt about Master Reigen. She couldn't tell anyone. She couldn't just let it out and **tell** someone even though she **needed **to because it was all starting to feel like so **much**.

"You just said that you would never hurt me." Said Serizawa

"I did. That's why I won't tell you." Said Mob

"You wouldn't hurt me. Can you please just….I mean…you were so upset when we first…I just want to know why." Said Serizawa because he just couldn't help but wonder. He wondered what it was that troubled her and he needed to fix it. He couldn't stand it when she was sad like this. She felt so small and warm in his arms and he needed to keep her safe.

"Serizawa, if I tell you you'll be sad." Said Mob

"No I won't be! I'm never sad when I'm with you." Said Serizawa. She threw herself against him and he took a step back. She kept holding onto him.

"….I'm not sad when I'm with you either. You always make me feel better." Said Mob

"You're sad right now." Said Serizawa

"Tell me something to make me feel better." Said Mob

"I love you." Said Serizawa because, well, what could make a person feel better than knowing that they were loved. Totally and completely loved.

"You're the only person who loves me like that." Said Mob. What was she so sad about? Master Reigen didn't love her back. She had to accept this and move on. She knew that she needed to but she still felt all achy inside when she thought about him.

"You're the only person who loves me like this. You're the only person who ever could love me like this." Said Serizawa. He took another step back and another until he felt his bed behind him. He sat down, pulling her with him. He sat down and pulled her on top of him. She was still holding him. Arms around him, head in his chest, legs on either side of him.

"No I'm not. You're a wonderful person, Serizawa, and lots of people would want to be with you." Said Mob

"No they wouldn't. You don't have to lie to make me feel better." Said Serizawa. Who would want to be with him when there were other people, better people, proper people out there? She was his everything and he was so grateful that she had chosen him, though he had no idea why.

"Serizawa. I would never lie to you. I don't lie to you. I know how much it hurts when someone you love lies to you. I will never do anything to hurt you." Said Mob

"But I've never lied to you. You love me and I've never lied to you once. I would never do that to you, Mob." Said Serizawa

"Say that again." Said Mob

"What? That I would never lie to you?" asked Serizawa

"Yes. That. That makes me feel better." Said Mob

"Of course I would never lie to you. You're my girlfriend." Said Serizawa

"….I am . I'm your girlfriend." Said Mob

"You don't have to worry about me lying to you." Said Serizawa

"Thank you." Said Mob

"For what?" asked Serizawa

"For not ever lying to me. You love me, you really love me….and you would never hurt me. I just….I don't know what's the matter with me." Said Mob

"Nothing is the matter with you. You're perfect." Said Serizawa

"Nobody's perfect." Said Mob

"You are to me." Said Serizawa

"Why?" asked Mob

"Why what?" asked Serizawa

"Why do you think I'm perfect? I'm not. I'm weird and awkward and I think about things that I shouldn't and I want things that I shouldn't and I'm just….I'm not perfect. I'm not perfect and I don't know why….why you love me. Why you think I'm so…perfect." Said Mob

"….because you saved me. Mob…Shigeko…you saved me in every single way that a person can be saved. You didn't have to save me but you did. You didn't have to spare me but you did. You could have stopped me, you could have beaten me, hell, you could have killed me. You didn't. You saved me. You showed me what real friendship was and then you saved me." Said Serizawa

"….and you saved Master Reigen." Said Mob softly. Serizawa didn't hear her, it seemed like. He was doing that thing where he talked like he was on a timer. Sometimes he did this but usually it happened after sex.

"It's not just because you saved me either! It's because you're just so…good. Everything about you is just so good. You never hurt anyone who doesn't threaten you first. You or the people you care about. You care so much about the people around you. We aren't…we aren't just pawns to you. You genuinely care about me….about all of us! You care so much and you…as powerful as you are you don't have to. You don't need anyone but you keep us around….you make me so happy. You keep me around even though…even though I'm nothing like you-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa…." said Mob lacing her fingers in his as best as she could. She rested her head in the crook of his neck. She could feel his heartbeat there, too.

"You take such good care of me even though you don't have to! I mean, not like my mom did….you're not a mom to me! I mean, you're not a mom to me at all! You're just someone who takes care of me and oh! That sounds so bad. I mean not literally but kind of literally. I mean…you make me feel better when I get upset. You make me want to be better than what I am and you accept me for who I am even though you deserve so much better than what I can be-" said Serizawa

"Serizawa….wait…I" said Mob

"But there isn't anyone in the entire world that I would want to be with more than I want to be with you. There's never been anyone in the world that I've ever even had the chance to be with but if anyone ever did want this with me I'd stay with you because you're just so wonderful and good and nice and perfect! Everything about you is just so perfect! I like the way you sometimes get really quiet when you're thinking about something. I like the times when you talk a lot, too, like when you tell me about things that are important to you… I like the way you smile at me like I'm the only person in the world. I like how you…I like how you feel. I like how warm you feel when we're together…and not even that kind of together….you're just so small and warm and there! I mean real! I mean…I mean that you're someone who's there and who wants to be with me and-and-and I love you. I love you and you're my everything." Said Serizawa. He had trouble catching his breath. It all just came out like a shook up bottle of soda. One thing and then another and then another and it sounded so stupid and she'd probably think that he was dumb and-

She kissed him.

He kissed her back.

Mob wanted to say it. She tried to say it. She couldn't say it. She couldn't say it but she could show it. His hands found her waist as she kissed him. Her hands found the back of his head. His hair was so soft and curly. She loved the way it felt under her fingers. His hands stayed at her waist but he scooted them back more. Oh. She had been about to tip over.

"Mob…" said Serizawa when they broke apart for air. Usually when she kissed him first it was in that deep, fast, sort of way that she liked. This was slower, like he liked. He reached a hand up and traced lazy circles on her back like she was a cat. She was so soft, so small, so warm, and so, incredibly, **there.**

"That was the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me." Said Mob resting her head in the space where his shoulder met his neck. He smelled nice there, like aftershave. A different kind of aftershave than she was used to but she didn't mind. She liked this.

"I could say it again if you want, if it makes you feel better." Said Serizawa as his fingers found their way to the space where her school shirt tucked into her skirt. She was still in her uniform. He hoped that he didn't do anything to hurt it. That he didn't accidentally lose control and ruin it because those were so expensive, she had said, and she looked so nice in it and-

"I feel better. You made me, make me, feel better. You always do." Said Mob kissing her way up his neck. This got her that sound he made sometimes, that low sound that made her inside feel gooey like a microwaved marshmallow.

"You make me feel better too, and I don't mean-" said Serizawa before he felt her teeth and oh yes! That! He tugged her school shirt free of the skirt. She kept it up. Biting him a little, not as hard as when they first started, when he had to button his shirt up to the collar button and it felt sort of like it was strangling him but he endured it because he may not have been an expert but he knew that he could not walk around with marks on him like that. Even though he was not at all ashamed of how they got there.

"You can, it's ok." Said Mob kissing her way lower. She felt shaking fingers curling around the hem of her school shirt. She let him pull it up over her head along with her undershirt. She undid the buttons of his shirt with her powers. Fine movements were easier now that she was used to using her powers while she was this worked up.

But she wasn't worked up, not like usual.

This was different. Less urgent.

Usually it was urgent. Usually she wanted to get to it as fast as she could, the parts that she liked. Usually she was pushing his head down by now. This was different. She had time now. She had time and she was all alone and she was with someone who loved and cared about her and…and she wanted to hear it. To feel it. For him to feel it.

"You're perfect." Said Serizawa. He wanted to lay down but there was a wall behind him. Usually by now he was on top of her, she liked that. Not that he had ever not been on top of her. She never asked him to do anything else so that much have been what she liked best. Not that he would have minded trying something else. She was different tonight. Less fast. They had time now. They had time and they could take all night. All day. Not literally, of course. People still needed food and water and sleep.

"Don't say that. I'm not." Said Mob pushing his work shirt from his shoulders. His coat and tie were always the first thing that he abandoned when he, they, he, got home.

"I think you are." Said Serizawa. He would gladly explain, again, why she was so perfect. He'd tell her over and over again until she could see herself the way that he saw her. Angel. An angel come down to him.

"I think I'm not." Said Mob before kissing the space over his heart. She rested her head on his chest. Fuzzy and kind of squishy but also warm and comfortable.

"I wish that you thought you were." Said Serizawa. He traced his hand across her stomach, this got him a breathy sort of giggle. She was ticklish there, backs of her knees too. He ran his hand up until it was over her heart.

"You wouldn't wish that if you knew what I thought about…" said Mob softly

"What do you think about?" asked Serizawa

"….a lot of stuff. Stuff that I shouldn't." said Mob as his fingers found their way up and across her chest. She squirmed a little. Yes. The sense of urgency was coming back but she had to slow down. She had time. She could…she could savor this. Like warm milk with vanilla.

"Everyone thinks about things that they shouldn't, it doesn't matter." Said Serizawa. Did she think about the same things that he did? Could he ask her that? What could she possibly think about that would tarnish her in his eyes. Nothing. There was nothing in this world that could ever make him think less of her.

"It doesn't?" asked Mob. What did he think about that he shouldn't have? Probably nothing nearly as bad as what she thought about. Not another girl. He would never do anything like that, and he didn't even know any other girls anyway.

"No, it doesn't." said Serizawa. What he wanted from her didn't matter. What he wanted she was, most likely, in no way ready for. She was younger, more than half his age, and the time that he was wasting when he was her age she was living. So what if he wanted forever with her. So what if he laid awake in bed at night wondering what it would be like to wake up with her. So what if he passed families on his way to work and he panicked a little at the thought of having a human being to take care of but then, later on, the thought of…someday…wasn't as scary….

"I wish that I could say it." Said Mob

"Said what?" asked Serizawa

"How I feel. I just…I can't do it again…" said Mob

"Do what?" asked Serizawa

"Say how I feel. I did…before…and then I got…hurt…" said Mob

"About this or about me?" asked Serizawa

"About you….how I feel about you." Said Mob

"I know how you feel about me. You don't have to say it." Said Serizawa kissing her. Short kisses in quick succession. She liked to be heard and he heard her. She said it loud and clear with her actions. She loved him.

"But I should. I should because you say it all the time. You even said it when we first…" said Mob

"When our relationship started." Said Serizawa

"Yes. Then. When I became your girlfriend." Said Mob

"When you chose me, out of everyone else…." Said Serizawa

"I just feel like…like I should. Like I should say it because you say it and you're wonderful and I-I I really-" said Mob

"Please don't be upset." Said Serizawa

"I'm not upset…I mean I'm not upset anymore. You made me feel better, Serizawa." said Mob kissing him deeply this time. He pulled her close, very close. He tasted like tea and dental floss. She liked tea and had no real opinion on dental floss.

"But what did I make you feel better from. You said…that you got hurt." Said Serizawa

"…..I said something that I shouldn't have and I made an idiot out of myself." Said Mob

"What did you say?" asked Serizawa. She had talked about this, before. That she had said something stupid. She never did say what it was, though, and she had said that she had told someone else that she…felt the same…no. She did not confess…but she could have….someone else…it's like a knife through his insides.

"Why do you want to know?" said Mob. What was it with people asking so many questions? Was everyone tuning into her brother? Ick. No. Not the thought to have right now.

"Insecure, maybe. I mean…I just…have you ever done this with anyone else?" asked Serizawa. Had she ever loved anyone else? Kissed him? Wait, he knew that she had. Had she ever been someone else's everything? Had she ever been in this…position….with anyone else?

"No. You're the first person I've ever had sex with." Said Mob. Serizawa hates himself for feeling relieved. The thought of her with someone else…no. Don't think about it.

"Same, for me…but you already knew that. You're the first person I've ever…loved…too. Like this, I mean." Said Serizawa

"Like this?" asked Mob

"For real. You're the only person that I've ever…" said Serizawa. Ever had the chance to be with. Ever wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Ever trusted so completely as he trusts her.

"…..you're the second…." Said Mob, softly. Serizawa gets very still.

"You….you've loved…someone else?" asked Serizawa. No, stay calm. Feel her, there. See her, there. She's there and she's there with you. She chose you.

"Yes….but he said no. He didn't just say no…he lied to me. He told me that he did love me but that we had to wait until I was an adult." Said Mob. She can see Serizawa's aura. She should have just kept her mouth shut. She should have but she just…couldn't! She needed to talk about this! It was eating her up inside like a tapeworm!

"Who?" asked Serizawa. No. Don't. Don't ask. What good will knowing his name make? It's probably someone that you'll never, ever, even meet in life and besides, she chose you anyway.

"You'll be upset if you know…." Said Mob. Serizawa and Master Reigen were friends, they saw each other every single day. She should have just kept this whole mess she had gotten herself into to herself. If there was nobody that she could talk to then so be it.

"I promise I won't. I know that…that you chose me out of everyone else…and that you love me." Said Serizawa. She muttered something.

"….Master Reigen…." Said Mob. His grip around her went slack. The energy around them crackled. She tried to smooth it down but it wouldn't listen so she just absorbed it. She felt the entire building, possibly, shake.

"….him…?" asked Serizawa. No. Not him…not him….not someone as together as him. Someone who knew exactly what to do and when to do it. Someone who had every situation under control. Someone who was so much better dressed….better looking….someone like….

Reigen Arataka

"…yes…but he said no and I don't care anymore. I felt like that about him but now I don't. I don't feel like that about him anymore. I feel like that about you now." Said Mob. She could see him, his aura, calming down.

"Right. You chose me…." Said Serizawa. She chose him. She did not, could not, have Reigen. Reigen didn't want her and she didn't want Reigen…anymore. She didn't want him anymore and she said so. She would never lie to him.

"I did. I did and I'm your girlfriend." Said Mob kissing him. It took him a moment to kiss her back. When he did he kissed her back harder than he had before. Mob melted into him, like poured butter. Yes. Usually when he kissed her he kissed her like she was made of glass wrapped in rice paper. He always knew how to make her feel better.

Serizawa wasn't mad at her, not really. He was just…upset. Upset that she used to have feelings for Reigen. Upset at her for having those feelings even though she had known Reigen for years before she had even met him. He was mad at Reigen, too, because Reigen had hurt her. Reigen had her, Mob, the most amazing woman in the world, and he said no to her. Why? What motivation could he possibly have? How could somebody as wise as Reigen have thrown away happiness with both hands like that?

Mixed emotions. Too many emotions.

So he kissed her.

He realized that he was kissing her too hard. He tried to slow down but that just made her kiss him faster and harder and deeper and oh! Their teeth were really scraping. She didn't seem to mind. She was pushing him back, now, too. His back was pressed hard against the wall. Her body. Her powers.

Reigen had never kissed her like this. Probably.

Serizawa can't imagine her ever showing this side of herself to any other man. Serizawa had never even imagined that she even had this part of herself. Her arms were around his shoulders. Her nails were digging right into him but it didn't hurt that badly.

No matter how she made him feel he would still love her.

His hands found her hips. He tried to push her downwards because she was putting a lot of her weight on him. She just pushed against him harder. She was digging her nails into him more and trying to, it seemed, see who's tongue was stronger. It was hers. He let her win. He let her grind herself down onto him. He let her yank on his hair. He let her scratch up his back. He had been too forceful there, much too forceful. She hadn't liked that. She had probably been upset and-

"Serizawa. I'm not made of glass." Said Mob. That had been so nice, before. She would have thought that he would have been mad or sad or something but he wasn't. He hadn't gotten mad, he was a man of his word. He had gotten…she wasn't sure what to call how he had been, before, but it had been so **good** but now he was back to treating her like she was made of glass.

"I know." Said Serizawa. She was not made of glass she was made of love and she loved him and he needed to remember that and not get upset because she was with **him** and not Reigen and that was what mattered but she had felt like this about Reigen too and what if he was just her second choice or a placeholder or-

"Then be like you were before. It was nice. You always treat me like I'll break or something." Said Mob

"Before….no. I shouldn't have-" said Serizawa

"But I liked it." Said Mob kissing him. He hesitated for a moment before he stopped letting her win. He pushed back against her with equal force to what she gave. His aura crashed against hers, the room was all pink and blue and purple. One hand found her thigh and he held her tight. The other found her hair and he ran a hand through it. She was still kissing him, still touching him, still wanting **him.**

"Tell me if I hurt you." Said Serizawa because she was just so much **smaller **than he was and he could have so easily **hurt** her on accident and she was made of glass, to him, even though he knew that she **wasn't** because she had saved him and she had been thrown through the air and smashed into buildings but she had still gotten up but this was different, this was not fighting even though in some ways it felt like they were because it was so physical and he was kind of **hurt** and-

"Serizawa, you said that you would never do anything to hurt me. I trust you. That's why I…because I trust you." Said Mob

"More than Reigen?" asked Serizawa

"….yes. You've never lied to me. I don't want to talk about him now, though. I just want…I want you to treat me…treat me like a woman. Like I'm not going to…break." Said Mob

"I can do that….I mean…tell me if I hurt you." Said Serizawa

"You won't. Just do what I do." Said Mob. She leaned down and kissed the side of his neck again, but not in that light way she did before. Serizawa tugged on her hair, accidentally, as she bit him. Not a mean sort of bite, but something that he had not been expecting. Not really painful but not something he had ever really thought about.

"You can pull on my hair, if you want. That was nice, too. But not too hard, ok?" asked Mob. That was new. She had never even thought about that. She knew, in her mind, what she would have liked, so she was going off of that. Hard kisses. Not that she had ever had anyone to actually do this with, before. She only had this in her mind and in her mind she had never conceived that getting her hair pulled could be nice. What else could they think of, together?

She wanted to figure it out with Serizawa.

"You mean like this?" asked Serizawa giving her hair that same small tug. She nodded.

"And kiss me, too, like I kissed you." Said Mob

"You bit me." Said Serizawa

"I guess. Not for real, though. Did you like it?" asked Mob

"I didn't mind. Where did you learn…I mean how did you think to…" asked Serizawa knowing that he was on dangerous ground. Had Reigen been the one she kissed? Had she and Reigen ever been in this position? He had been her first time but she had been his first everything. He was not all of her firsts and he needed to stop thinking about it because it didn't matter even though it felt like it mattered.

"….movies. Anime. Things that I've seen. Things that I think about…" said Mob softly. Things that she had thought about doing with Master Reigen. Things that she had thought about ever since that time when she was thirteen and she had seen a mark barely hidden under his collar and spent the rest of the day staring at it and wanted to be the one who gave it to him. Mob wasn't dumb, she knew why the girls with their skirts all rolled up wore bandages on their necks. She had even seen how those got there, a few times, because people tended to forget when she was in the room even if she was standing less than a meter away. Movies and manga had filled in the blanks. Not those movies and manga that were only people doing it, Mob didn't really get the point of those, but the ones that were for adults and were about people in love doing what people who were in love did together.

"Oh, right. Girls do, too." Said Serizawa. So she had things that's he had seen and wanted to do, too. He wondered if there was any overlap in what they wanted. He knew what he had seen, what he thought about, but he wouldn't ask that of her. He could never ask her to, well, anything. What if he asked her to do something and she thought that it was weird. He knew that when it came to things like this art did not always imitate life.

"Do what?" asked Mob

"Nothing. Just…think about things…I guess." Said Serizawa

"Do you ever think about things? Things like this, I mean. Not in general. I know you think about things in general, like how sometimes you look at the sky and get scared. I didn't mean things like that." Said Mob

"You remembered that?" asked Serizawa

"Yes. I remember things that you tell me. People have good memories. I'm not a goldfish, I remember it when you tell me things." Said Mob

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything by that. I just meant….thank you, for listening to me." Said Serizawa

"You're welcome. I listen to you and you listen to me, that's fairness." Said Mob

"You're right." Said Serizawa

"So, what do you think about? I mean…that's fairness too. It's fairness if I do things that you want to do, too." Said Mob. It was both fairness and curiosity. If she liked it when he pulled her hair then what else could he think of?

"….I want to make you happy. That's what I want." Said Serizawa before leaning down and kissing the side of her neck in that rough, biting, way that she had kissed him. He couldn't say it, not now. He had to think and prepare for a question like that. Firstly he had no clue what he would like in life. He knew what he liked in his mind but this was real life and real life was not a fantasy. Secondly he had no idea if any of the things he liked in fantasy would be ok in reality. It was different when it was real.

She wrapped her legs around his waist.

It was different when it was something that you could reach out and feel.

"I love that!" said Mob. Maybe she should confess things more often. He was less…passive? Passive. Now he was less passive and more oh! That was nice. Of course he wasn't mad at her. This was Serizawa. He was one of the nicest people that she had ever met. He was so understanding. He didn't explode or say that he was mad at her or that he was mad at Master Reigen or anything. She felt better, too, and not just because he was kissing her so that she could actually feel it. She felt…lighter? Lighter. Lighter than she had been before because this weight was lifted off of her shoulders and now she could enjoy it with him. Love and sex. Sex and love. She needed both and he gave her both.

Sex and love in equilibrium.

Mob ground herself against him. Layers. They had too many layers on. She tried to undo the button of her school skirt with her powers and accidentally tore at it. Ok. Too worked up. Fine movements were out right now. Mob undid her legs, they had been crossed behind him, and rested her knees on other side of Serizawa. She raised herself up a little and put her weight on her knees.

"What are you doing?" asked Serizawa breaking away from her. For a moment he was afraid that she had spontaneously developed telepathy and was seeing the things happening in his mind. Things about her. The slow, sour sort of anger he had at Reigen for both rejecting her and being the subject of her affections. The biting sting of the fact that another man, not only another man, but Reigen had been the subject of her affections. His best friend. Beyond that there were the other thoughts that he had about her. How he wanted to throw her down and chase every thought of Reigen Arataka from her mind. How he wanted to dress her up like a maid, which he knew not to ask of her, and pick her up and lay her on a table, but not his table because it was too low, or just bend her over it-no. Don't think like that. Enjoy what you have.

"I have too many clothes on." Said Mob as she tugged down her underwear with her powers. Ick. Slick and sticky and slimy and unpleasant. She didn't know where she tossed them to but she'd find them later. She'd worry about that later. She settled herself down onto him again. His belt buckle was digging into him and she shifted herself down lower.

"….you still have your skirt on." Said Serizawa reaching down and holding onto her thighs. He crept his hands up until he made his way to her waist. Where her waistband should have been. He let out a shuddery breath and traced the space where her waistband should have been.

"Sorry. I tried to take it off with my powers but I didn't want to accidentally rip the button off. I can do it by hand. Hang on." Said Mob. She reached over to the side with the buttons on it but was stopped by Serizawa. He held her wrist in his hand.

"No. I don't mind." Said Serizawa. He let go of her wrist, he shouldn't have grabbed it like that. That had been mean. Forceful. But she liked things like that…but that had still been mean.

"You have too many clothes on, too." Said Mob. She reached down and played with the buckle of his belt. He leaned back and helped her with his powers. She pushed his pants about halfway down his hips. He sat up to give her some room to work. She was doing this herself. By hand. He committed every second of this moment to memory. So what if Reigen had her, before, he had never had her like this. This was Mob and Serizawa, not Mob and Reigen.

"Hi." Said Mob after getting back to where she was. She looked down at him, she was slightly taller than he was when they sat like this. He was halfway laying down. She was sitting on her knees. So that was what he looked like from above.

"Hi." Said Serizawa as he looked up at her. She was taller than he was, there, slightly. She was putting her weight on her knees. He scooted back so his back was against the wall again. There. Now they were level again. He could feel it against him, her slickness. He could smell her, too. He would never get tired of her, of that, of this. This was theirs. Him and her. He ran his fingers from her the space where her waistband should have been, across her thighs, and to the curly hair she had there. She rocked into him, his hand. He brought his fingers down, slowly, to what she called the nubby thing. He knew it's real name, he had read enough books to know it's real name, and he knew it's function. This was the best part of it, for her, not that he had needed a book to tell him that. The way she rocked into his hand, the little gasps and mews she made, all of it was enough for him to get a clue.

Reigen wouldn't have known what she liked.

No. Don't think about Reigen. What had happened between her and Reigen. Nothing happened. He said no. Nothing happened. This was happening. Don't get upset. Don't freak out.

"There…." said Mob rocking herself against him. Her eyes were closed. She was thinking of, no, she was trying not to think of Master Reigen. She needed to stop it. But it was so **good** when she did. But she was not with him. She was with Serizawa and she…she loved him. He loved her and he was so good to her and therefore she loved him.

"Why do you always close your eyes?" asked Serizawa stopping what he was doing. Her eyes were closed tight. She always did that.

"That's just something that I do." Said Mob. She wasn't lying. She had always closed her eyes, even when she did this by herself. She had always closed her eyes. She did it so that she could be more inside of her head, or less in the moment maybe. She felt weird, when she started doing things like this by herself. Even before she thought about Master Reigen. Even when she had just been chasing good feelings all alone on her futon at night.

"I know. You always do that." Said Serizawa

"Does it bother you?" asked Mob

"…a little…I mean…I like it when you…if you would look at me…" said Serizawa. He used to close his eyes. Not with her, of course, but instead when he was alone. He'd close his eyes and imagine that someone else was with him. Early on it had been girls that he knew but then as the years went by it was girls that he wished that he knew. He'd go inside of his own mind just so that he could take a **step** outside of the self-imposed hell that was his room. But now he was out of that self-imposed hell he could open her eyes. He could open his eyes and he did but she still kept hers closed. What was she trying to take a step away from? Him? Them? This? Each thought made his insides clench and his heart stop.

"…ok…" said Mob. She opened her eyes and met his. They just stared at each other for a while, not moving. He leaned over and kissed her. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. Too much, too much at once. She rested her head at the crook of his neck. She kissed him, lightly, like he liked. He still didn't move. She rocked against him. He got a clue and got back to it.

"I love you." Said Serizawa as his fingers found her slickness once again. She was kissing him without biting. He liked this better, when she was gentle. She was loving, then. She was being loving and he loved her. So he said it. She didn't say anything. She just turned her head and kissed him. Lazy kissing, sort of. Slow and sweet. Loving. Loving and slow and languid and lazy but so, very, nice. She spoke with her actions. She was telling him she loved him. He, in turn, was slow and languid and lazy and loving in his ministrations. He teased her a little, just a little. Not as hard as she liked. Slow touches. Light touches. She rocked into him and mewed. She asked him for more. Him. Not Reigen.

Stop thinking about Reigen.

"Harder….please…" said Mob as she kissed him. Her eyes were still open but as she stopped kissing him she rested her head in the crook of his neck again. He wanted to see her, to look at her. He stopped completely and, instead, moved his hands up to her back. He pulled her close and kissed her. He kissed her like she kissed him. Kind of like fighting but not really. She met him and kissed him back just as hard. She rocked against him as the kissed. He held her by the waist with one hand and moved the other back under her skirt. She gasped at the contact.

"Yes. That. Oh!" Said Mob. She knew that she wasn't super articulate when she got like this. Worked up. Excited. She was getting closer. It was better when her eyes were opened. She didn't mind the little things he said now that she wasn't going inside of her own head. The little ways he'd repeat 'yes' and 'more' and 'I love you' softly and breathlessly. She could appreciate him better, now. The way his aura rocked with hers. The way his body rocked with hers. The way his voice got all low when they were like this. Even the way that they smelled when they were together. She thought more about herself, too, when they were like this. When her eyes were opened she felt, sort of, like she could see herself, too. She was too pale, she knew this. Her chest was still too flat, she knew this too. She was small and little and he probably thought that she was too little and any minute now he'd just tell her to get off and go home because she was too young, just like Master Reigen said that she was too young and that they couldn't be together.

"This?" asked Serizawa. He kissed his way down her neck, maybe too hard. No. The harder he went the harder she rocked. The more she mewed and gasped and begged. The more she rocked and gasped and mewed and begged the harder he kissed her. It was sort of like fighting, almost. Fighting her thoughts, maybe. The thoughts that she had about Reigen still, maybe. No. She didn't. She was his and he was hers and they were together and he needed to stop thinking about this and-oh!

"Oh!" said Mob. Well, that was what she was trying to say. It came off as more of a squeak, though. A high pitched squeak. She hadn't meant to end up…connected…with him like this. It felt…different. Kind of like the first time. The first time she hadn't finished before they got together. Every time afterwards she finished and then they did this. She was usually fully relaxed beforehand but now…it didn't hurt…not really. It felt weird. She rocked a little. It felt bigger this way. She tried out the rocking motion again. Deeper this way. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders for stability. She used her powers to make some more room to move, her skirt was getting caught under her knees.

"Do you…do you like this?" asked Serizawa. He knew that people could do it like this, too. It was nice, he thought, to change it up. He could feel her better like this. Less work on him, too. She was making the rhythm now. Teasing him. Slowly. Deeper, too, which was nice.

"Yes. Oh yes!" said Mob. When she angled herself a little lower and ground against him when she moved…yes! Perfect. Different. Inside and outside at once. Different. Different than fingers. Thicker. She liked thicker, she decided. Her eyes were still opened. Well, she was blinking, too, but she was in the moment. She couldn't make eye contact. She had trouble with eye contact at the best of times and now it would be a lot so she stared down at a spot on his chest. She could maybe even see his heart beat if she focused enough. She looked him in the eye, though, when his hands found her thighs and his fingers dug into the soft flesh there.

"You can move, too, if you want to." Said Mob finding words. She felt him shift under her and then he rose up and met her. He moved with her. She always moved with him. Her fingers made their way to the juncture between her legs but he beat her there.

"Let me." Said Serizawa. He wanted to make her feel good. He needed to make her feel good. He needed to be better then what Reigen could have been for her. He had a job and this was his job and he could do his job well because he was there for her. He was hers and she was his. Not Reigen's.

"I-I-lo-lo-" said Mob. Words were difficult. Words were hard to find, to hold on to. Tis felt so good. So perfect. It was better with her eyes opened. It was better when she was in the moment and with the person who loved her and who she…loved…right back. She pressed her forehead to his. She tasted salt. Them. They were salty together. Sweat. They had this heavy smell to them. Heavy and thick and a little…acidic? Was that it? Them. It smelled like them when they got like that. Nice. To her, at least. Like trust and pleasure. They smelled like trust and pleasure.

They felt like trust and pleasure.

That was what this felt like.

She could feel her toes curling in her socks. She always left her socks on, so did he. Feet were always the first thing to get cold. They were the only thing that didn't touch when they got like this. Everything else touched and rubbed and they were like kindling and they could burn together and then nobody would ever find them and the lights were flickering and the crack in the ceiling was still there and the room was shaking almost or maybe she was just shaking and she was having trouble staying upright on her own and her legs were staring to feel weak and she was getting tense but in a good way and the lights were still flickered and the models on the shelves were rattling and-

**Yes.**

Boneless. Mob was boneless.

It was dark and Mob was boneless.

She was still moving up and down.

Then she wasn't.

Then there was silence.

Mob broke it.

"I love you." Said Mob breathlessly. She was laid down on the bed. She felt the mattress dip. He laid down next to her. She had said it, she finally found the words. That had been love. An act of it. Why did she feel so boneless? She never felt like this afterwards. That had been different. From inside. Inside felt different then outside. Boneless. She was boneless. She was boneless and sweaty and slick and slimy and tired and it was dark. It was so dark that she could forget about Master Reigen. It was so dark that she could pretend that she and Serizawa were the only two people in the whole world. He pulled her close. He was all sweaty too. She didn't mind it. That was her, too. Him and her. Together.

"I love you too." Said Serizawa after a moment. Lots of feelings at the moment. There was a sense of, well, pride in himself. He had been the one who made her feel like that. He had gotten her to finish just by, well not just by, but mostly by being inside of her. She had never finished while he was inside of her, before. The way she clenched around him. The way she bore down on him. He had done his research. He knew the words for it. Her pelvic floor bore down on when she had an orgasm. If he was going to be clinical. Clinical didn't fit. Filthy didn't fit either. They were somewhere in the middle. Wherever they were, she was, he was proud that he had gotten her there.

Aside from the pride he felt love. Loved and loving. Her, there, with him. In his arms. It was like he was inside of her and she was inside of her but they were also inside of each other. Emotionally. Auras, too. Their auras were merged. The only light in the room. Oh. They had…he tried to flip the switches…they had blown the circuit breakers, maybe. He did that, before, when he was younger. Back when he was locked in his room and he had just figured out what the internet was for besides forums and flash games. It had been more intense, back then. It was still intense for her. Just then. He had made her feel like that. He had made it that intense for her. He had been the one that she said it to. I love you. Said with words. Said with words to him. Him. Not Reigen.

Jealousy reared it's ugly head. Reigen. She had confessed to Reigen. She had confessed to him and he had said no. Serizawa had no idea why Reigen would say why but he was grateful that he did. That made him terrible. He was terrible because he was happy that Reigen had rejected her. Terrible and terribly selfish. He held her closer. She nuzzled him kind of like a kitten. He patted her hair. She was so soft and sweet and perfect and small and wonderful and his-

"I think I broke the lights…I'm sorry." Said Mob softly. She tried the switches with her powers. Nothing, She could see out the window that the streetlights were still on. At least that she hadn't caused a black out in the whole city.

"You just tripped the circuit breakers, probably. They'll fix it. Don't worry. I think that might have been me, too." Said Serizawa

"I'm still sorry." Said Mob

"Mob, don't apologize. Please, not for that." Said Serizawa. He could feel her fingers resting on his shoulders. She traced a line up and down.

"Can I apologize for scratching you?" asked Mob

"No. I don't mind." Said Serizawa

"But I hurt you." Said Mob

"No, not really. You did that because you felt good. I don't mind at all I could never mind a single thing that you did." Said Serizawa. She was quiet for a moment.

"You mean that?" asked Mob

"I do. I would never lie to you." Said Serizawa

"Do you really mean that? That you would never lie to me?" asked Mob

"Of course. I can't think of a single reason why I would ever lie to you." Said Serizawa. He was her boyfriend and while he only had a few weeks experience in this role he knew not to lie to his girlfriend. Trust was important she was someone he trusted completely. He was putting his trust in the right person this time. He trusted in her.

"…I love you. I love you and I think…it's ok if you want to hold my hand when we're at work." Said Mob. She didn't mind it now, if Master Reigen knew the truth. He didn't love her and she needed to stop holding out hope that he would ever feel the way she felt. She told herself this. That she didn't care if he knew. Maybe if she told herself enough times then it would be true.

"Are you sure? We're at work and I don't want to break any social rules. I don't want to make Reigen uncomfortable, either." Said Serizawa. She was the one who said not to when they were at work and it made sense. Work was work and that was a place only for working. That and, well, the internet had confirmed what she said and he didn't like breaking social rules. Reigen also might feel bad, not having had someone to love in a very long time, he had said. Though it was his own fault. He was the one who said no to her. Not that Serizawa minded.

"I don't care if he knows that we're a couple." Said Mob with all the conviction that she could put into her usual monotone.

"He knows, I just don't want to make him uncomfortable." Said Serizawa. There was a silence.

"He knows?" asked Mob softly as she collected her thoughts. When? How? Why?

"Yes. I told him after the first time…after you and I…after we became a couple." Said Serizawa trying to find the right words. She had never explicitly said that they were a couple but…but she hadn't had to say anything. She spoke with her actions, not with her words, and that was just her way. She had made herself perfectly clear. She loved him and he loved her and even if she had loved someone else, before, it didn't matter. It was fine, they were fine. More than fine. Perfect. This was perfect and she was perfect.

"….I didn't know that he knew…" said Mob softly. He knew and he didn't say anything. He was lying, she was right. If he wanted to be with her then he would have at least said something. Goodness knew he loved to talk. He would have told her to break up with Serizawa and to be with her if he wanted to be in a couple with her. He would have…but he didn't. He had been lying. He didn't care. He didn't care if she was someone else's girlfriend. He didn't care if she kissed someone else. He didn't care if she had sex with someone else.

Well fine then.


	10. Content Hearts

One word. Hi. That was all that Reigen could type out.

Hi.

This shouldn't be so hard. He used to text her…well…not all the time but sometimes. It had been radio silence for weeks now. She used to text him, too, but there had been silence on her end. Both of them.

God, he sounded like he was fifteen, not her.

He had no plan for what he would say beyond hi. He just…he needed to get back to what they had before. She had said it twice now that they were ok but Mob had always been a terrible liar. The one thing she hadn't learned from him. Mob couldn't lie to save her life. He knew that the two of them were not in any way, shape, or form ok. Something was just…gone between them. The easy way they used to talk, and despite appearances she could talk. The easy sort of…comradery, they had. She was just….different.

She was distant from him. He was distant from her. He knew that he had his part to play. He stopped touching her, it seemed like it was for the best given the circumstances, and maybe she had taken that as him rejecting her.

He hadn't.

He could never reject her, not for real. That was why he had told her to wait. He wanted to be with her, he wanted to be with her so badly that it was driving him mad, but he couldn't. Heh. It was like something out of those mangas she was always reading. Tales of Forbidden Romance volume whatever. The boss in love with his subordinate but the conventions of society keeping them apart. Heh. If this were a manga he'd ride up on a bicycle and peddle off to some scenic overlook where it would start to rain so they'd share an umbrella and kiss.

Maybe he should invest in a bicycle. Or an umbrella.

He'd ask Serizawa where he got his. It looked big enough for two. Mob was tiny, she could easily fit under it with him. Serizawa would probably let her, too. He was taking the time out of his day to make tiny plastic versions of her to pilot less tiny plastic robots based on a show that was cancelled over twenty years ago but she was, for reasons he did not understand, obsessed with to the point that she and Serizawa one time had a THREE HOUR discussion on ONE EPISODE.

If anyone had asked Reigen he would have told her that the Human Work episode was pure filler.

Not that anyone had asked him.

Serizawa agreed with him, though. He ranked it at the bottom of his episode ranking list. He had disagreed with her but not really. He had debated her. But not really. In the end he sort of agreed with her. Serizawa always ended up agreeing with whatever she said. Serizawa had been doing that more and more lately….

Serizawa did not have a crush on Mob.

Serizawa was thirty one and not Reigen Arataka. He was not interested in a girl Mob's age. He had a girlfriend, and she was real. Serizawa was just as bad a liar as Mob was. He was in what sounded like a very committed relationship, on his side at least. He did not have a crush on Mob. They were just friends. Close friends. They had always been close friends.

Reigen had no idea what, exactly, happened between Serizawa and Mob on that awful day. All he knew was that Serizawa had saved his life. Saved his life because he knew that it was what Mob would have wanted. The after the fight the two of them had been talking like they had known each other for years. Mob said that when she stole his energy and returned it to him they had seen glimpses of each other's lives. He has shown her how he came to be a shut in and the Suzuki's bodyguard and she had shown him the meaning of true friendship.

Just like one of Mob's shoujo mangas.

Then she had gone all super saiyan and defeated Suzuki.

Not like on one of Mob's shoujo mangas.

Of course if this was one of Mob's shoujo mangas then that would have been the beginning of something romantic between her and Serizawa. But it wasn't. This was real life. Mob would never….no. She would never do something like that.

Mob was as stubborn as she was loyal. She had stuck with him no matter what, and there had been a lot of 'what' over the years. Reigen knew that he had hurt her. He knew how much it must have taken for her to just come out and tell him how she felt. He knew that she was hurt but she, of course, had not done anything as rash as…as the crazy thoughts running through Reigen's mind.

He hit send.

Then he waited.

Maybe she was away from her phone. Maybe she was playing videogames with her little brother. Maybe she was trying to do her homework and he was bothering her. She must have been at home. She was not allowed out of the house when her parents were away for this long. Usually she hung out with Serizawa after work. They built plastic models and watched anime and read manga together, that was all. She was at home now, though, and doing Mob things. Whatever she was doing it was not with Serizawa.

"Ok, now what flavor is this one? And don't open your eyes!" said Mob. The power was still out in Serizawa's apartment. She felt bad about tripping the breakers but Serizawa said that it would come back on eventually. They had gone outside, though, because there wasn't much to do in the dark after they had done what they usually did in the dark.

"I haven't been. I'm just really good at this game." Said Serizawa. He was, he really was. He had eaten a lot of candy in his life and he could easily identify the difference between super cherry, milky strawberry, and electric blue…whatever flavor blue was supposed to be. Every candy had their own idea of blue. Blueberry, blue raspberry, blue mystery flavor. He had wanted to get her something nice for dinner but she liked candy. He liked whatever she liked.

"You are. You're even better than Ritsu. He can't tell the difference a lot of the time unless he sees what he's eating. He says that a lot of the time it just tastes like sugar." Said Mob. She hadn't played the mystery candy game in a while. Not since she and Ritsu were little. They were grown up, now, and it was…that was life.

"It does! It's just…subtle…." Said Serizawa as a piece of candy was popped into his mouth. His eyes were closed but he could still see her. Well, her aura. Not nearly as well as Shimazaki could see auras but he could make out the vague shape of her. The pink and blue that made her up. What flavor would she be? Strawberry? Cherry? Cotton candy? Blue raspberry? Mystery? If she were a candy that is. He knew what she tasted like. Vaguely salty and oniony sometimes. Not unpleasant at all but not like candy. Candy was too sweet, if anything, but she liked it and so would he.

"Well? What is it?" asked Mob

"Tastes like….pineapple?" said Serizawa

"It's supposed to be tropical flavored but I guess pineapples are tropical. A point to you." Said Mob

"Doesn't taste tropical. The air tastes kind of salty in tropical places." Said Serizawa opening his eyes. She was sitting next to him. They were on a bench in the park. It was dark, the air had kind of a bite to it. She didn't seem to mind.

"You've been to tropical places?" asked Mob. She had, aside from a few trips out to the countryside, spent her entire life in Seasoning City.

"A few. Indonesia, most recently. The President was recruiting pretty heavily towards the end." Said Serizawa. He had been to so many places but not really. He had spent his time glued to the president's side. He hadn't seen much or done much, not like the other members of the Ultimate Five. Of course he had been happy to just be included. He had thought of the President and himself as….but they weren't friends at all. Don't think about the times before. Think about now. Think about her sitting there looking at you and wanting to be with you. She loves you. She said so.

"Was it fun, though? Traveling I mean. I've never been anywhere." Said Mob

"I thought that it was at the time but…I know better now." Said Serizawa

"What do you mean? If something was fun then it should still be fun now. Fun is fun." Said Mob

"I know that we weren't really friends, now. I mean…Suzuki said so himself." Said Serizawa. Mob reached over and put a slightly sticky hand over his.

"Yeah, he was kind of mean. Kind of really mean. Kind of the meanest person I've ever met…in this reality." Said Mob

"He could be nice sometimes….for him I guess. I don't know. I just…do you ever miss someone even though you know that you shouldn't?" asked Serizawa. Mob nodded.

"All the time, but then I tell myself that I shouldn't." Said Mob. She missed Master Reigen but she knew that missing him was dumb. She wanted something that he was not willing to give. That was fine. She had someone she loved and who loved her in return.

"I miss the others sometimes…sometimes, not all the time. I mean Shibata could be kind of a jerk and so could Shimazaki but Hatori and Minegishi were nice and we hung out sometimes." Said Serizawa

"What happened to those guys, anyway? Maybe you could all still hang out." asked Mob. She knew what it was like when friends went away, even if you weren't super great friends. She missed the Telepathy Club, especially Tome, but they had mostly all gone onto high school. Most of the Body Improvement Club, too. It didn't feel good at all to be left behind.

"Minegishi I think is working at a flower shop now. Hatori I know went underground so I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for him." said Serizawa

"If he's underground then maybe he's hiding in the subway tunnels." Said Mob before she could think. Don't be so literal. Great, now she sounded dumb…no. Serizawa would never think anything like that about her. He loved her. He wouldn't laugh at her or anything like that.

"Not that kind. I mean he's in hiding. He didn't switch sides like Minegishi and I did." Said Serizawa. She could be very literal sometimes. He didn't hold it against her. He could say the wrong thing sometimes too. He liked it about her, actually. She could be…herself? Herself. When she was around him she was completely and totally herself. He was himself around her, too. Was that what love was? Being able to be yourself and just say how you felt and be heard and…yeah. All of that.

"Thank you for that, by the way. I mean…for saving Master Reigen's life and stuff." Said Mob

"I didn't do anything that any decent person wouldn't have done…and I'd spent too many years not being a decent person." Said Serizawa

"I think you're a good person, Serizawa." said Mob

"I am now, thanks to you." Said Serizawa lacing her sticky fingers within his own.

"I think that you always were. You did bad things but that doesn't make you a bad person. I've done bad things too….." Said Mob. Things like accidentally hurt her little brother. Things like lose control of her powers and hurt people. Things like make people love her without her being in love with them. But she was in love with him. She was, she really was. She had said it and she had meant it. She hadn't just said it because he said it so many times.

"Do you mean when you were trapped in the unreality?" asked Serizawa. He had seen her life flash before his eyes on the day they met. Some things had been too quick to remember and others had etched themselves into his mind. He knew the unreality. He knew what it had been like for her. Six months. He held her hand tighter. He would never let that happen to her again. He couldn't.

"Oh….I showed you that, too, back when we first met. I did something bad in there, too." Said Mob. She had strangled Asagiri. She didn't like to think about that.

"I know, I don't care. I just wish…I wish that I had been there to protect you." Said Serizawa

"But you didn't even know me back then." Said Mob

"I didn't but if I had known you then I would have protected you. I love you." Said Serizawa

"I love you too." Said Mob quickly. There. It was getting easier and easier to get the words out.

"I'll still protect you. I mean it." Said Serizawa

"I don't need anyone to protect me. You were there, Serizawa, you saw me save the world." Said Mob

"I also saw you getting thrown through the air and getting slammed through buildings….I don't want that to ever happen to you again." Said Serizawa. He saw her as she had been that day, for a moment. When she had come crashing to the ground. Her body covered in blood and bruises. Her leg with the extra corners in it. The bone sticking out of her arm….it didn't matter that she had put herself back together again. He never wanted her to ever be in that state again.

"It won't. Sho's dad is still locked up and I don't think that they'll ever let him out. Besides, I'm fine now. Nothing's broken and I'm not hurt." Said Mob taking a bite of her candy rope. He worried way too much. Master Reigen never worried that much. He was worried in the beginning but now he knew that she was capable.

"…but you could get hurt again and it's my job to protect you." Said Serizawa

"Relationships aren't jobs." Said Mob

"You're right but…but I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Said Serizawa

"Nothing is going to happen to me, Serizawa. You sound just like Ritsu right now." Said Mob

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I mean, you love your little brother but you're saying that looking out for you is a bad thing so I'm a little unclear about….everything." said Serizawa

"It's….sometimes I feel like you smother me. I mean, not literally but…I can take care of myself, ok? Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I'm not capable." Said Mob

"I never said that you weren't capable because you're a girl. I don't think that you aren't capable at all! You're very capable! I just….the thought of losing you….I can't lose you." Said Serizawa

"You won't lose me, Serizawa. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I mean, we're going to go back to your apartment but we're going to do that together. I have to go home on Sunday but that's a couple days in the future. I mean that I'm not going to stop being your…girlfriend…or anything like that. I could never hurt you like that." Said Mob

"Do you promise?" asked Serizawa. he kicked himself mentally, of course, because that sounded terribly needy now didn't it?

"I promise. I'm your girlfriend and you love me and I won't go anywhere." Said Mob. Who else could she be with? Master Reigen obviously didn't care about her in the way she cared about him and she didn't think that she could ever feel the exact same way about another guy as she did about him. No, don't think like that. She loved Serizawa and she was happy with him and he cared about her and she was going to be his girlfriend until one of them died.

Serizawa didn't say anything to that. He just kissed her. He kissed her for a long time, possibly longer than was socially acceptable. He just felt so…good. She was his and she wasn't going anywhere and he had nothing to worry about and she would most certainly never want to leave him for Reigen and it was crazy to even think thoughts like that even though she had been in love with Reigen in the past but the past was in the past and this was the present and she was there with him and they had just made love and it had been so good that they blew out the circuits for his entire building and now they were eating dinner and playing 'guess what flavor this candy is' and they were tied and it was a good night and-

"Do you want to go back inside? Your aura is being all jumpy again and you forgot your umbrella." Said Mob

"I didn't forget it, I just didn't bring it." Said Serizawa

"Why? Don't you need it? I don't want you to explode." Said Mob

"I still need it but…but I shouldn't. I'm trying to be better for you." Said Serizawa

"Better for me? I don't mind that you carry around your umbrella. It's not a bad thing and it's useful too, like if there's a sudden downpour." Said Mob

"I just…I rely on it too much and you deserve a man who's more…together." Said Serizawa. A man like Reigen. He wasn't afraid of anything. He was powerless but he had gone up against the president with a toy gun and his own brute strength while Serizawa was cowering on the stairs like a scared little kid.

"I don't care at all. I'm not together either, literally. I'm in two separate piece. There's me, the me you're talking to now, and then there's the other me. She's the one who comes out when I totally lose control. She's always there, though. Sometimes we talk, but not like in a crazy person sort of way. So don't feel bad about carrying around your umbrella because it's better than having to share your entire self with another person." Said Mob drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. Serizawa is quiet for a while.

"That's why your aura is in two separate colors….does it…hurt?" asked Serizawa. He hadn't seen two entirely different colors in all time in Claw. He remembered the fight, the time before the final light. The time when it looked like her soul broke out of her vessel. The way she laughed and screamed when that happened….it hadn't seemed like her. Turns out it wasn't. And she was telling him this. Him. She was sharing a weakness with him….the strongest esper in the world was sharing a weakness with him.

"No, not at all. It doesn't feel like anything at all. I think I was born like this. I mean, I always saw pink and blue when I really focused. The other me didn't start coming out until I…I told you about the time I hurt my little brother. That's when….yeah." said Mob. She felt him put an arm around her.

"I'm sorry I made you feel bad." Said Serizawa because, well, he did feel bad. When she sat like that she felt bad. He was a terrible boyfriend. The worst. He made her feel bad. He was supposed to make sure she was happy and she felt good. That was his job in this relationship. Well, role. She didn't like it when he called it a job.

"No, it's ok. I'm fine, really. It's just something that I was born with. I can't help it. You didn't make me feel bad, Serizawa. You could never make me feel bad. You love me." Said Mob. So she was in two separate pieces. She was human the same as anyone else. Besides, being in two pieces had been what had saved her when she fought Mogami and Sho's dad. Being able to leave it all up to the other her had been what saved her.

Serizawa kept on holding her close. She liked it here. It felt smothering but also safe. It was nice, she thought, that someone else wanted to keep her safe. That someone else could keep her safe. She had always been the one to keep Master Reigen safe. He was bigger than she was, bigger than Master Reigen was. Something about that felt comforting, on an instinctual level. The same instincts that told her what to do when they were together. This was nice, she decided. He was nice. She closed her eyes and yawned. Comfy.

"We can go back if you want. I mean, if you're tired. I mean, not that I'm telling you what to do or anything." Said Serizawa

"No, I'm fine. You're just super comfortable. There's still no power in your building, I think. I can see from here that nobody's lights are on." Said Mob

"We can still go back, though, if you want." Said Serizawa. He wouldn't mind laying in the dark and cuddling with her. She was so small and cuddly and it felt good, not sexually good, but good to have her in his arms.

"But what can we do? They still haven't fixed the electricity." Said Mob

"Cuddle and talk? I mean, I like cuddling with you and I like talking to you. I like you." Said Serizawa kissing the top of her head. He wanted to lay down with her and hold her and listen to whatever she had to say. Then he could hold her and kiss her and not have to worry about what was and was not socially acceptable. Especially because he was getting looks from most of the people who passed by.

"I'd like that." Said Mob. She knew how hard it was for him to be outside sometimes and it must have been even harder without his umbrella. She had to think about him and what he felt and what he wanted. That was how she had wrecked things between her and Master Reigen. She had only thought about what she wanted and not thought about the fact that he so obviously didn't have feelings for her. Whatever. She had Serizawa now.

He took her hand and they walked the short distance back to his building. She held the plastic bag with the rest of their dinner in her other hand. It rustled while she walked. She had to walk a little faster than normal, Serizawa was a lot taller than she was so he took longer strides. That was a nice little park space, they should come back in the daytime. Tomorrow they could explore Serizawa's neighborhood, maybe. After they explored what they could do together, of course. Mob shook her head. She thought about it too much. She needed to think of something else. It was just so hard to. Today was….different. Good different. Very good different. She wanted to see what else could be good and different. She looked over towards him. He was a little red. Good thing they were going inside, he seemed bothered by something.

Serizawa knew what it meant when her aura got like that. Again? He could and would oblige her. Today had been amazing! Well, not the information guillotine she had dropped on him. That hadn't been very amazing at all. Amazingly painful, if anything. She had been in love with Reigen…of course she had been. Had being the operative word. That was in the past. She was in love with him now. She wanted to show him how much she loved him again. This was in the top five best parts of having a girlfriend, he decided. It went her emotional support, her caring, her thoughtfulness, her company, and then sex. Sex had to rank lowest because otherwise it would have been like he had just been using her for sex or something. That would have been terrible, and he could never do something like that to someone, especially someone as wonderful as her. The relationship was the cake, sex was just the frosting. You could have cake without frosting but you couldn't have frosting without cake. That was just too much sugar and no substance.

They came to the front door of Serizawa's building. A sign had been placed in the window saying that they were working on fixing the problem and that everyone had to take the stairs. Stairs. It was easier going down than up but Mob didn't mind. She hadn't been in the body improvement club for two years for nothing.

"I can carry you, if you want." Said Serizawa. That was a lot of stairs up to his apartment and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to carry her. She had felt so…good…in his arms when he carried her earlier back at work.

"Up all those stairs?" asked Mob. She had liked being carried, before. Like from in that movie. It had been…it was nice knowing that he thought about her like that.

"Yes. If you'll let me. You don't have to." Said Serizawa. What if she hadn't liked it, before? What if she thought it was dumb, that he had copied a movie. What if she thought-

"Ok. For a little bit. I don't want us to fall down or anything." Said Mob as they made it to the stairwell. Orange emergency lights lit up the stairwell and hallways. It was kind of dark. She wasn't afraid but he did make her feel safer.

Serizawa reached down and picked her up. He held her like she was a bride. That was why they called it bridal style. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He heard the rusting of a plastic bag as she got comfortable.

"I like this." Said Mob as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. He walked them upwards slowly. She hoped that they didn't fall. If they fell she would catch them, though. The walk was bumpy but she didn't mind. Slow and bumpy but still safe and warm. She closed her eyes and watched his aura.

Serizawa was totally cheating and using his powers to stabilize himself. Ok, maybe he should have thought this through. There were a lot of stairs and he could have fallen but he would not let himself fall because he was holding onto her and if he fell then she fell. She felt good. Warm. Happy. Not heavy. Not terribly heavy. Ok, maybe he was using his powers to help carry her, too. If she noticed she said nothing. Reigen would never have been able to carry her like this.

Don't think about Reigen.

She's not with Reigen.

She loves you.

She's your girlfriend and she loves you and she chose to be with you.

So just enjoy this.

"You really don't have to carry me all this way, Serizawa." said Mob. The ride was bumpy and she was totally cheating and stabilizing them with her powers. It was bumpy but nice but she had legs and those legs had muscles and she could take the stairs on her own.

"We're…almost….there…" said Serizawa. She shouldn't have to climb all of these stairs. She was so small and fragile but not really but yes really but no because she survived being thrown from the stratosphere but yes because she could fit so easily in his arms and-

"I'll carry you next time, then." Said Mob

"How? You're only…how tall are you, anyway?" asked Serizawa

"I'm not small. I'm one hundred and fifty three centimeters tall." Said Mob

"That's a lot smaller than me. You're not strong enough." Said Serizawa. He smiled a little. She was so considerate, and adorable too. Even under the harsh orange emergency lighting she looked so cute. Expressively no expressive. She was pouting a little, unseen to anyone who hadn't spent God knew how long staring at her face and learning every single tiny expression that she could make.

"I'm not?" asked Mob before lifting them both up the rest of the way with her powers. This didn't count under the rule about not using her powers on people because she was trying to be helpful.

"Ok, I'll admit it, you're stronger than me." Said Serizawa when they reached the landing for his floor. He still held her in his arms. She was just so…perfect…there. Small. Warm. Tangible.

"If we're talking about powers, yes, but I could never lift you like this, in the real way. You're right. It doesn't matter, though, who's stronger." Said Mob. He was still holding onto her as he opened the door to the hallway with his powers. He was holding her in the real way, now, without powers. Master Reigen used to pick her up, too, when she was little and not as heavy. Serizawa didn't seem to have any trouble holding her, though, even though she weighed over a hundred pounds.

"….you're right. It doesn't." said Serizawa. It didn't matter to her. Every esper he had ever met in his life had been so…obsessed…with who was the strongest. She didn't care. She WAS the strongest, of course, but she didn't seem to care. She didn't lord it over people like Suzuki did. She was strong in the real way. The way that made her strong enough to not care about being the strongest. The kind of strong that made her march into certain death for the people she cared about. She didn't sit and hide and cower and wish that she was strong enough to do something. She just did it.

She was so amazing.

He opened his door with his powers and carried her over to his bed. He set her down carefully, very carefully, because even though she said that she wasn't made of glass he couldn't help but see her as fragile. He just sort of looked at her for a while after he put her down. The light from the outside barely illuminated her but her aura took up the slack. He sat down beside the bed and just took her hand.

"Serizawa, what are you doing?" asked Mob. Was there something on her face? Were the marks on her neck really that bad? They hadn't looked so bad when she checked her reflection in her phone camera and she figured that they must have faded by now. She healed fast. Well, ever since she figured out how to heal herself fast.

"Just looking at you. You're really….." said Serizawa. Pretty didn't do her justice. Neither did beautiful. She was something else. He could see her physically and metaphysically and she was simply….perfect. Perfection. She was like a gift from above. Like an angel, but not an EVA angel. Not a cruel angel. No. She was just pure goodness and wonderfulness and perfection and the day that she realized how amazing she was she'd leave him.

"What?" asked Mob. Nobody ever looked at her like that before. He never really looked at her like that. Usually they didn't have enough time to just…be…like this. She looked at him and he looked back at her. He looked nice, she decided. She could see him pretty clearly, auras made good flashlights it seemed. Their auras were trying to meet again. Hers. His. Pink, blue, and purple. She let hers meet his. Warmth. Love. Anxiety. Nervousness. Why?

"I'm just looking at you, that's all. You're just….I think that you're…I don't know how I ever got someone like you. I mean…" said Serizawa. He couldn't tell her what he was afraid of. He could never tell her how he knew that she could do so much better. How he knew that he had done nothing in his life to deserve her. How he had no idea….no idea what she even…what she even wanted with a man like him.

"….I'm here because I want to be. I'm your girlfriend because I want to be. I want to be with you because…because you've always been so nice to me." Said Mob. How had he gotten her? By being nice. He had never lied to her or rejected her.

"Thank you, Mob. Thank you so much." Said Serizawa. He sat there holding her hand for a little longer. She held his hand right back. She held eye contact with him in the dark. Aura light wasn't true light. The room wasn't lit up, not truly. The light didn't' cats shadows, it simply illuminated what it touched. She shone so brightly, like a star. An angel. He needed to hold her. He needed to hold her and never let her go because….because she was so perfect. She was turned on her side. She was watching him watching her.

Mob scooted over. Maybe he wanted room, too. It was his bed after all. Maybe he wanted to have sex again, too, which she wouldn't have minded at all. She'd take her dress off beforehand, though, because she didn't want to ruin it like she had her school skirt. Thank goodness she had packed for redundancy. It had been weird being semi-dressed. He seemed to like it, though. Why she did not know. She didn't get some things about him….but she could learn. She didn't get why he still got so anxious when they were out and about in the world. He had her and she would, of course, keep him safe. She also didn't get why he loved her so much. She….she loved him but it felt like he was on a whole other level.

But it was fine. She loved him back and it was fine.

Serizawa climbed up and laid down next to her. For a moment there was one centimeter of space between them, just a moment, though. For a moment he could only just look at her. The way his aura touched hers. The way her eyes stayed locked onto his. There was space between them for a moment before he reached over, slowly, and pulled her to his chest. He was on his back and he pulled her onto him, somewhat.

"Can we cuddle?" asked Serizawa. He kicked himself, mentally, because he should have asked before he cuddled her. Or did he still have to ask? They were together and they loved each other. But then again it was always good to ask.

"We are cuddling." Asked Mob. This was nice. The shirt he had put on didn't have buttons, which was good, and was very soft. One of his hands was on her back. The other hand was in her hair. She rested her head on his chest just above his heart. It was kind of weird doing this with clothes on.

"Right! Right….sorry." said Serizawa. He couldn't even talk right. She deserved someone who always knew just what to say. She deserved someone who knew what he was doing. Serizawa had no idea what he was doing. Everything he did either came from movies, manga, or advice from Reigen. Heh. Reigen had rejected Mob but he was telling Serizawa how to keep his relationship from imploding in on itself.

"Don't be sorry." Said Mob not sure what he was apologizing for. She did that too, said sorry a lot. People always told her that she said sorry too much.

"I know I just…." Said Serizawa

"Just what?" asked Mob

"I don't know. I'm anxious, I guess." Said Serizawa

"Anxious about what?" asked Mob

"Just….us…I guess. I just…I've never done this before and you…you deserve better." Said Serizawa biting the bullet and just telling her. She knew all of his shortcomings, why should he bother hiding them. If she wanted to leave then she would just leave. She could. She could get right up off this bed and go home and never, ever, see him again.

"I've never done this before either, Serizawa, and I'm happy with you. You make me happy. Don't say things like 'I deserve better' because that's not a nice thing to say. You're a good person, Serizawa. You're a good person and I wish that you believed me." Said Mob. Why was he so down on himself? She knew the things that troubled him. She knew how he felt bad about the things he did when he was Sho's dad's bodyguard. She knew that sometimes the world was too big and he was too small so he hid from it. She knew that sometimes he felt bad about all the time he lost when he was hiding from the world. She also knew that he was a great person. She knew that he was strong, not only strong enough to lift her, or strong as an esper, but strong in the real way. He was strong in the way that made him betray the person he cared about most in the world when it became obvious that he was doing bad things. He was strong enough to save the life of a man he didn't even know and to go up against the most powerful being on Earth just because it was the right thing to do.

Serizawa was strong in so many ways but he just couldn't see it.

Maybe she could help him see it.

"I just…I feel like…I feel like you…" said Serizawa. The energy around them began to crack. Mob smoothed it down, took it in, and made it her own.

"Serizawa, I'm your girlfriend. You're….you never lie to me. You would never reject me. You've always been nothing but honest with me and that's why I love you." Said Mob

"But you could easily have-" said Serizawa

"Don't tell me that I could have anyone because I can't. I don't…I want to be with you. There's nobody else I can be with but you." Said Mob. She wished that he would just stop thinking like that. She wasn't perfect and she couldn't get anyone. If she were perfect then Master Reigen wouldn't have been the way he was. No. Don't think about him. That's over and done with. That was then and this is now.

"I know…I know! I'm just….I'm sorry. This isn't what you want to hear. I'm just insecure I guess." Said Serizawa. She didn't say anything. She just leaned up and kissed him. Lightly, then deeply. He kissed her back. There. Now she tasted sweet, like he had always imagined her. They broke apart and she rested her head back on his chest. They laid there for he didn't know how long. He knew that she drifted off before he did. He just felt her on top of him for a little bit. There was a light sort of weight to her, and a nice sort of warmth. She mewed a little as she drifted off. Perfect. She was so perfect. He looked up at the crack in his ceiling and thought the thoughts that he knew that he should not have had about her.

How wonderful it would be when they could go to sleep together each and every night.

How it would feel to wake up next to someone. His bed always felt too big after she left but now she would be spending the night with him and she would be the last thing he saw before he went to bed and the first thing he saw when he woke up and….it would be wonderful. It could always be wonderful.

He thought more thoughts, future thoughts. Thoughts about the future that he knew were too early to have.

Thoughts about what kind of home they could have together. A house? An apartment? Which would she like better?

What would it be like to have someone to cook with? To have someone to cook for him who wasn't his mother?

How did she feel about marriage? That was a thought he only let himself have late at night long after she had gone home. Did she believe in it? Would she…would she ever want to be married? What kind of ceremony would she want? Who would they invite? Where would they have it? These were just pleasant thoughts to go to bed by, of course. Of course he would never ask her about that. He wasn't dumb. Their relationship wasn't even a year old and she was too young to get married anyway. Not without her parents' permission, anyway.

He thought about what it would be like to meet her parents. His heart stopped when he thought about this. Would they like him? Or would they think that she could do better? Families were very protective of their girls, he figured. He didn't have much to offer her. He had money saved up, not a crazy amount of it but enough to live on. He didn't get paid much working for Reigen and he didn't know how to do anything besides being an exorcist or a bodyguard. Body guarding paid much more than exorcising but he didn't much care for fighting. Families cared about how much you had to offer their daughters. He had to be able to take care of both of them. Both of them and any other people that might…happen.

That thought scares him so badly that the room shakes and she begins to stir. He rubs circles on her back and she eases back into sleep. His hand moves across her back and to her stomach. She never expressed worry about having a baby so she must have been doing something to keep from having one. Which was good. He had no idea how to take care of a baby. He had no idea how to take care of himself half the time! But…but he could learn. He had never been in a position to even consider a future with a woman and a family but now…but now he had her. He had her and she was there and perfect and wonderful and-and-and he loved her.

But these are just thoughts. Thoughts that he knew not to voice. He could never tell her the thoughts that he had about them and a future together. It was just so nice, being able to look forward to the future. He spent so many years of his life in the dark. Even when he left he never looked forward to, well, anything. Not even Suzuki's vision. Not that he had even fully understood his vision at the time. Just…being included in something had been enough for him. But now it was different. But now he was with someone who cared for him and he cared for in return and with her he could have all the things he had never even thought that he could begin to imagine.

And to think that he had no idea she had even felt like this, before. How long had she wanted to be with him for? Was there one moment or a bunch of them? He knew that he had always had some kind of feelings for her. He liked her...maybe from the first day. Maybe from when she saved him…but he had never…he had never felt feelings of this depth for her. He thought she was pretty and nice and brave and strong but he had never thought that…he had never imagined himself being anywhere near anything like this with her.

"Serizawa, that tickles…" muttered Mob. His hand was over her stomach. She was half asleep, mostly. He was warm and comfortable and soft. He was kind of squishy but she…she didn't mind.

"Sorry." Said Serizawa. He moved his hand from her stomach to her side. She nuzzled into him.

"Are we going to bed now?" asked Mob. She had no idea what time it was. Her phone was still in her bag.

"Do you want to?" asked Serizawa. If she was tired then they could go to bed. It was getting late….maybe. He had no clue what time it was.

"I'm kind of sleepy but that might just be because it's dark in here." Said Mob. Her hand found his stomach. She could feel him breathing through his shirt. Squishy. Warm. Still good. Not what Master Reigen would feel like but she had to stop thinking about Master Reigen. That was over and done with. Now it was her and Serizawa. She had to exorcise all of the emotion she ever felt about Master Reigen because feeling it now, at this point, would hurt too much.

She had been telling herself and telling herself that she was Serizawa's girlfriend now and she had to think only about him. She kept telling herself what to do but she wasn't listening to herself. Maybe she was just a bad listener even though Serizawa said that she was a good listener. She just needed to try harder. Serizawa was a really great guy and he cared about her. He wasn't just great because he never lied to her or rejected her, either.

He always listened to whatever she had to say and never told her to get a clue.

He was always there to spend time with her whenever she wanted.

He was the only person in the world who knew just what happened to her, back when she was in the unreality. She hadn't been able to get the words out to anyone but he had seen it and he knew.

He knew what it was like to be afraid of yourself because of your powers.

He knew what it was like when other people were afraid of you because of your powers.

He had abandoned everything he had for her. They had just met but he defected from the one person in the world who gave him hope.

He genuinely loved her and cared about her.

He understood her.

She understood him.

The lights came back on.

"I see the light, it burns! Not really, I was just kidding." said Serizawa. She laughed. A little. She never laughed a lot but she did laugh. She lifted her head and looked over at him. She was thinking. He knew her thinking face, it was her blankest face.

"I'm happy." Said Mob finally. She was happy. What she had wanted, what made her love Master Reigen, was understanding. At the core of their relationship he had understood her from the very beginning. But he hadn't. He had been lying to her, then. He had lied to her so many times and before she told herself that she didn't mind because he was a good person but now…she was starting to mind. Probably because she had someone with her who didn't lie. She was happy with Serizawa. She was happy.

"I know, you were really worried about the lights before. See, I told you they'd fix it. What do you want to do now? We can go to sleep or keep on cuddling or watch TV or play videogames or eat the rest of the candy. Whatever you want, Mob." Said Serizawa

"Whatever you want, Serizawa." said Mob. She'd do whatever he wanted to do. She made him happy and he made her happy and that was what mattered.

"Can we cuddle and watch TV? The EVA DVD is still in the player from the last time you were here." Said Serizawa. His favorite person and her favorite show. A duet of pleasures. His happiness and hers. He felt her nod.

"OK. I'd like that. Do you want to watch A Human Work again?" asked Mob. The best episode of the introduction arc in her opinion. His, too, eventually. He came around on it after much friendly debate.

"….sure…" said Serizawa. She had an amazing appetite for repetition. She had about five or six episodes that she could watch over and over and over again. She never got bored. Well, he had never seen her bored. It didn't matter if he was bored, not that time with her could ever be boring that would be awful, if she was happy then he was happy.

"We can watch something else if you want to. It is your TV after all." Said Mob. Maybe she watched the same thing over and over again too many times. Master Reigen said that she did, back when she was little and watched Sailor Moon all the time. She had four episodes that she would watch on an endless loop. When she loved something she never got bored of it but she knew that other people got bored of things all the time.

"No, whatever you want. It is your favorite after all." Said Serizawa

"Yours too, right?" asked Mob

"Kind of…I like it a lot. I don't think that anyone likes it as much as you do, though." said Serizawa

"Maybe. I don't know. It just…I feel like it understands me. I don't know. I just…I feel like I'm Shinji sort of. I just sort of do things because other people tell me to and it makes me happy to be useful I guess." Said Mob. That was why she had started working for Master Reigen. He made her feel useful. He always praised her on a job well done and she loved that praise. That praise and his friendship were what kept her coming back even after she figured out that he was lying to her. If Master Reigen told her to get into a giant biomechanical robot and fight angels then she would get in the robot and make him happy. No matter how dangerous it was. Serizawa would never ask that of her, though.

"I know what you mean. I felt like that too, back when I worked for Claw. It's just so much…easier…when someone tells you what to do. It's easier and it feels so good when you're useful too. It's like you have a place." Said Serizawa

"So you do whatever that person tells you to do. Sometimes it's dangerous. Sometimes it's scary. You still do it because you don't want to let him down. Because you want him to care about you." Said Mob

"But then he says that he doesn't. He says that he doesn't and you don't want to believe it but you have to because HE said it and-and your whole world just…" said Serizawa

"Comes tumbling down." Finished Mob. There was a moment of silence. Mob didn't break it. She just lifted her head and kissed him.

"You understand me." Said Mob resting her forehead against his.

"And you understand me." Said Serizawa

"We understand each other." Said Mob before resting her head on his chest. She got the TV going with her powers. His hand was in her hair again. She moved into his touch. That was so soft and nice. She sat up and little and reached for his hair. His hair was short and soft and kind of curly.

"We do. We really do." Said Serizawa. In that hell of his own making he had wanted, more than anything else, someone who understood. His mother didn't understand him, what it was like to live with…with this power living just under his skin. Being so unstable. Nobody understood, not even the President. She understood, though. She knew what it was like to be afraid of yourself. She knew what it was like to explode. She knew what it was like to hurt the people you loved. But he could never hurt her. She could never hurt him.

"And that's why I'm happy." Said Mob

"Same." Said Serizawa

"Can we always be this happy? Like we are right now?" said Mob. This was a lazy sort of happiness. Not the giddy happiness of when they had sex. Not the nervous sort of happiness that she got when she was around Master Reigen. Not even the quiet sort of happiness that she got when she drank milk or saw a cat. This was a lazy sort of happiness that could just…exist.

"Sure. I mean I can try. I mean…I don't know the future but I can try my best to make you happy." Said Serizawa

"You do, Serizawa. You make me so happy…" said Mob

"And I always will. I mean, I'll try to….for as long as I can…in the future…." Said Serizawa. There was some silence. She was watching TV again. She really loved this episode. Would she always? Would they be cuddled up like this in the future? When they got older? When she was sixteen and he was thirty two? Then she was twenty and he was thirty six and she was twenty? When she was his age and he was forty seven? When he was his mother's age and she was forty six? A future. They had a future together. She had just…she wanted a future together. He held her close. Tight.

"Serizawa, you're smothering me." Said Mob into his chest. He let her go immediate.

"I'm sorry! I was just…thinking." Said Serizawa

"Do you want me to close the blinds? Is the sky too big again?" asked Mob

"No…it wasn't the sky. I was just thinking about the future." Said Serizawa

"Do you mean like if apes will be our masters? I saw a movie about that, once. It was kind of boring but Hanazawa said that it was a classic of American cinema. Sometimes I think that classic just means really, really, old and not necessarily something that people would like." Said Mob

"No, not that….why would apes be our masters in the first place?" asked Serizawa

"Because we blew the world up with nuclear weapons. At least that was how it went. The astronauts didn't know that it was Earth all along, though. That was the big twist. Sorry for the spoilers. Well Sho spoiled it for everyone when the opening started. Then Ritsu threw popcorn at him and Hanazawa kept on saying that it wasn't true and just to keep on watching. That was a few movie night's ago. Now Hanazawa only picks movies that Sho hasn't seen." Said Mob

"Wait! I've seen that movie!" said Serizawa

"Did it come out when you were little?" asked Mob

"The original or the remake?" asked Serizawa

"The original." Said Mob

"No, of course not. I'm only thirty one." said Serizawa

"Oh. Sometimes I forget how old you are. To me people are either kids or adults or old people." Said Mob

"Well I'm not an old person, Mob." Said Serizawa

"I know, I just forget how much older you are than I am. It doesn't bother you, does it?" asked Mob

"What?" asked Serizawa

"How much younger I am than you." Said Mob

"It's not your age that bothers me….not that….I just…I think about the future a lot. Stuff I know that I shouldn't think about." Said Serizawa

"You mean like when the sun's going to go out? We learned about that in science class. It made me sad…but it won't go out for millions of years. What part of the future do you think about?" Said Mob

"Just…us. Together. Things that I know that it's too early to even begin thinking about." Said Serizawa

"Good things?" said Mob

"Yes." said Serizawa

"What kind of good things?" asked Mob

"Just…thoughts about you and me and the future." Said Serizawa

"Are we happy in your thoughts?" asked Mob

"It's more about…how I can make you happy. Like….if you could live in a house or an apartment which would you choose?" asked Serizawa

"A house. That way if I lose control then I won't bother anyone." Said Mob

"In Seasoning City?" asked Serizawa

"Yes. My family lives here and I've lived here for my entire life. I don't know where else I could live." Said Mob

"There's always….Baked Goods City…that's where I'm from. My mother still lives there." Said Serizawa

"Oh. Right, you aren't from here. I've never been there, before. I've never been anywhere." Said Mob

"We could go places! I mean, I could take you to some of the places I've been…or we could go to totally new places!" said Serizawa

"I'd like that. I'd like that a lot. In the future, though, not now. I can't be away from home for too long or my parents will get upset." Said Mob

"Because you're still…" said Serizawa

"I'm fifteen. I have to do what my mom and dad say." Said Mob

"Right….do they? I mean….do they know that you're…that I'm…that we're together." Said Serizawa. She turned her head.

"It's not you it's just…you're a lot older than me and I don't want them to tell me that I'm not allowed to see you. I mean…they could tell me that I'm not allowed to see you. That's why Ritsu still didn't tell them about Sho, too, so it's not about you." Said Mob

"But I love you and you love me. What does age have to do with it?" asked Serizawa

"A lot, I guess. I mean….I'm happy but they might not want me to be with someone so much older than me." Said Mob

"Why do you care so much what others think? I mean, as strong as you are…." Said Serizawa. His mother hadn't told him what to do at any point in his life. She was afraid of setting him off. Other people were beholden to their parents, though, and he had to remember that.

"Because they can tell me that I'm not allowed to be with you and I have to listen to them because they're my mom and dad. My parents aren't like your mom, they don't let me do whatever I want. When I'm an adult then I'll tell them. When I'm an adult then I can do whatever I want." Said Mob

"Oh. Ok." Said Serizawa. He had been worried for a second. She wasn't keeping him a secret because she was ashamed of him and she knew that she could do so much better. He didn't want to have to stop seeing her and if her parents would rather she be with someone closer to her own age then of course he wouldn't risk their relationship.

"Ok? That's all?" asked Mob

"Yes. That's all. It's only three years before you reach the age of majority. That's no time at all." Said Serizawa

"It's a long time." Said Mob

"Is it? I don't know. The years just kind of all run together after a while. I can wait three years and after those three years are up then we can be so happy together." Said Serizawa. Three years seemed like a good amount of time. He could ask her to marry him, then. She'd be a true adult and then she wouldn't be beholden to her family. They'd have a home and a life together and maybe even be a family. He put his hand on her stomach again. It would be less scary, then. Much less scary. The future. Their future. A future he could look forward to.

"We're so happy right now." Said Mob giggling a little as his hand found her stomach. Ticklish.

"We are, we really are." Said Serizawa. He pulled her in closer, careful not to smother her this time. He was going to make her so happy, the happiest she could ever be.

Mob was the happiest she had ever been in a while, just lying there with him. Happy. Content. For once she wasn't thinking about Master Reigen. For once she could just think about what she had. Time had no meaning when they were together like this. She had no idea what time it was and she didn't care. It didn't matter as long as the two of them were there and comfy and happy.

She didn't notice all the messages she was missing.


	11. Give an inch, walk a mile

Mob woke up feeling tired. Serizawa had held onto her all night like she was a teddy bear. How she was expected to sleep while being held to his chest like that she had no idea. The fact that she was in a bed and not a futon didn't help either. It was too dark in his room at night, too. Too dark and too cramped. She was awake. She called her phone over to herself. It was early, much earlier than she usually got up on a Saturday, she could tell by what little light she could see coming from behind the blinds. Behind her Serizawa stirred and muttered something before burying his face deeper into her hair.

How could he possibly be comfortable like this?

Well he wasn't the one being smothered.

One arm was across her shoulders and his hand rested on her collarbone. The other one was under her side and his hand rested on her stomach. How could he be so comfortable? Mob had been fighting with her arms all night. They were the only things that could fall asleep like this. She shifted. He held her tighter. She shifted again. He held her even tighter.

She was being smothered.

But that was just what love felt like.

Love felt like someone holding you so close that you could barely breathe. Serizawa loved her and she loved Serizawa. They were in love and happy together and he was the only person who did love her and well that was that. Serizawa cared about her and made her happy and she should be happy that someone loved her. This was what she had wanted. She had wanted it with Master Reigen but he didn't want it with her and that was perfectly fine.

She shifted again. She used her powers to loosen his grip on her and she rolled out of the bed slowly. She slid off the end as carefully as she could, her nightgown riding up behind her. For a moment she was embarrassed but it passed. He had seen her naked so many times already what did it matter if her nightgown rode up in the back? She stood up slowly and grabbed her toothbrush from her bag. She pulled it out slowly and heard something hit the ground. Oh.

OH.

How could she have forgotten?! These were important!

The room shook. She heard Serizawa stir.

"Mob? What's wrong?" asked Serizawa sitting up quickly. He could see her aura. She was upset about something. What? What had he done? What happened?

"Nothing. I just forgot to take my medicine." Said Mob

"Oh. I didn't know that you were sick." Said Serizawa. He'd take care of her. He didn't even mind if he caught whatever she had. He'd make her soup and get her more medicine from the store and carry her to the hospital if she needed it.

"No, it's not that kind of medicine. This just keeps me from having a baby." Said Mob simply. It did if she took it at the exact same time every single night, which she sometimes forgot to do. Like last night.

"Oh…so that's what you use." Said Serizawa. In the morning, the light of the morning, not that much came through the blinds, he knew that what he wanted was not something that he could have. It was different at night. When he was tired from the day. When they had just made love. His mind went to places that it shouldn't have. Now that it was morning he kicked himself for even broaching the subjects that he had broached with her last night.

She was not ready.

They were not ready.

He was probably not ready.

He was thirty one and he knew what thirty one year olds were supposed to do. He had found the one and he wanted to settle down with her. The only problem was that the one for him was fifteen and was too young to even consider making those types of choices for herself. He looked it up, when he wasn't fully thinking, and she needed her parents' permission to settle down with him and all the things that full adults did.

And she still hadn't told her parents. They would have disapproved, she said, because of the age gap, and it was one hell of an age gap. To him it didn't matter. He guessed that it would to other people. To her parents. His mom wouldn't mind. Her age hadn't come up but he did say that she was his coworker and she was in school and she had saved his life and saved the world. Mom wouldn't mind that she was fifteen. Mom didn't mind anything.

"My mom made me. She took me to the clinic and they asked me a bunch of questions and took my blood pressure and then gave me these. Mom says that I shouldn't complain because the doctor's appointments for when you're pregnant are much worse. She made it sound really scary, having a baby." Said Mob

"It always seemed scary to me, I mean I only know what I've seen on TV." Said Serizawa

"Me too but it can't be that bad, otherwise nobody would be having babies in the first place." Said Mob

"Do you…like babies?" asked Serizawa

"I do. They're cute and sometimes at the park people's moms let you play with them. Do you like babies?" asked Mob

"….they're terrifying." Said Serizawa

"But they're so little. They can't hurt you, don't worry. Well, esper babies could…I think. Mom says that when I was a baby I'd pick things up with my powers and throw them around…but I haven't ever seen an esper baby before so maybe they're rare, like a metal cat capsule toy." Said Mob

"I'm not terrified OF them just of…taking care of one." said Serizawa

"Oh, you meant like you having a baby." Said Mob

"Yes, that's what I meant. It's just…the thought of taking care of a person…" said Serizawa. He could barely take care of himself. Sure he could learn but, once again, he had barely learned how to take care of himself.

"That's what the medicine is for, then, so we don't have to worry about that." Said Mob

"You're right. I shouldn't worry. We still have years to worry about that." Said Serizawa

"…you mean you and me having a baby?" asked Mob. She couldn't have a baby, she was fifteen! Wait, no, she wouldn't always be fifteen. Her? A baby? With Serizawa? The thought is dizzying, and not in a good way.

"Not now! I mean, in the future. I mean…isn't that how it goes? You meet the one, get married, and start a family with them?" asked Serizawa. He had missed out on pretty much every stage of life so he might as well get back on track. No more sitting in a dark room and letting life pass him by.

"….yeah…that's the order it goes in…" said Mob. She had never even had more than vague thoughts about that part of the future. She had always imagined that as being some far off point in the future. Something for when she grew up. But she was grown up. She was here with her boyfriend in his apartment and she did all the things that adults did and she…sort of…felt like an adult on the inside so who cared what the calendar said? She was an adult and that was the pace of life that adults followed and she needed space because suddenly the room was kind of small. She grabbed her toothbrush and hairbrush and made her way to the bathroom. She closed the door and took a deep breath. Then another. Then another.

Right. The future.

She didn't want to think about it.

She just wanted to have fun and be in love, that was all. She didn't want to think about where love took you. She didn't want to think about the future, her future. She had entrance exams this year and those were enough to worry about. Getting into Black Peppercorn high school where most of her friends were either planning on going to or ended up going to. That was her goal for the future. She had no idea what she was supposed to do after that. University? Which one? She hadn't even thought that far ahead and Serizawa was thinking about them being married and having a baby….

That was what adults did.

Proper adults.

Serizawa was a proper adult.

She just felt like an adult inside of her head.

Even though he read manga and played videogames and liked a lot of the same stuff she did he was still sixteen years older than she was. He wanted all the stuff that a person his age wanted. Was that what Master Reigen had meant when he said that he was worried about stealing her youth from her? Did he want the same things that Serizawa wanted? Marriage and a baby? With her? No, not with her. If he had wanted to be with her then he would have said something when he found out that she was Serizawa's girlfriend. He didn't want to be with her.

But she still wanted to be with him.

The thought of being married to Master Reigen and having a baby with him scares her a lot less than the thought of having all of that with Serizawa. But it shouldn't. She loved Serizawa, she had told him so. She could not and would not hurt him. So then this was it. This was her future.

He was her future.

The mirror cracked.

A knock at the door.

"Are you alright? Your aura is looking kind of…upset. Also I heard something break." Said Serizawa. Was she ok? Was she mad at him? He shouldn't have said anything, it was just so hard though. Thoughts. Thoughts that he had to voice to someone because now he had someone in his life to voice his thoughts to and she was such a good listener and he was scared but also excited at the prospect of their future together and-

"I'm fine. I just lost control for a second and…I cracked your mirror on accident…but I can fix it!" said Mob. She used her powers to try and fix the glass. She tried to smooth down the cracks and it looked better…sort of.

"I don't mind. I've broken that mirror a few times before. You're ok, right? Tell me if you aren't." Said Serizawa through the door.

"I'm fine, I'm just brushing my teeth." Said Mob as she turned the tap on. She felt him move away from the door. She was fine. She was happy. She could worry about the future in the future. Now was the present and all she wanted to do was have fun and be in love and be happy. She was happy. Of course she was happy.

His toothpaste tasted weird.

Serizawa was worried. She was ok, right? Her aura was being all…pointy…sort of. Worried. Her aura was worried which meant that she was worried and something was worrying her and he had no idea what it was and without knowing what was bothering her he couldn't fix it and he had to fix it because she was his girlfriend and he loved her so much and she should always be happy because he had to make her happy because that was what you did when you loved someone and he loved her so much and-

He needed something to do. He needed something to do because he was starting to get anxious and when he got like this nothing good came from it. He made his bed, that was something to do, and something productive too. He couldn't fall into old habits. He needed to keep his place clean because that was what functioning adults did, they didn't live in filth. They didn't live in the dark and the filth of their own accord. She wouldn't want to live like that. She deserved a nice place to live. She deserved a home where it was bright and clean and she could be happy.

Not that this was her home. Not that she wouldn't go back home to her actual home at some point. Not that he wanted her to stay forever. Not that he would ever allow himself to be so terribly clingy towards her even though he loved her more than anything else in the whole, entire, world. He couldn't be clingy, she wouldn't like that. It was just so easy to cling to her…

"Your turn, Serizawa." Said Mob. So that was how he got the bed so perfectly made. She had never made a bed before, actually. She slept on a futon, something she was looking forward to getting back to.

"Oh! Right!" said Serizawa jumping a little. Right. Don't be anxious. She's fine. See, she's there and she's fine. Perfectly fine.

Mob let him move past her. She sat down on his bed and called her phone over to her hand. Oh. That was a lot of missed texts. Ritsu? For a moment she thought that he was, once again, being all super nosy and protective. Nope. Master Reigen. Well, him and Sho.

Most of these texts were from Master Reigen.

Her heart forgets how to beat and then overcompensates.

He texted her a lot. Hi and then…cat videos…EVA video essays she's already seen….funny cats again…disjointed words….single words….then some stuff in romanji that she doesn't feel like finding the meaning of. He texted her. He wanted to talk to her.

Mob rolled onto her stomach and texted him back.

"_Hi"_

Reigen did not like getting up early when he didn't have to. The chime of his phone broke him from sleep, blissful sleep. He let himself begin to drift off again when he heard a second chime. He groaned and rolled out of bed, getting twisted up in his blankets. He fell to the ground with a thud and picked himself up. Who the hell was texting him at this ungodly hour on his day off?

Oh. Mob.

Mob texted him back.

He had assume that she was ignoring him. She must have been busy hanging out with her little brother or something. They used to be closer, she and her brother. He was probably bothering her. He wanted to bother her, after a while. When one hour turned into two. He spammed her, he knew that he had spammed her. He just needed to hear from her even if it was her telling him that she was busy and that she wanted him to leave her alone.

The silence had been worse.

But she had broken it. Two texts.

"_Hi" _and_ "Sorry I missed your texts I was away from my phone"_

Another. _"The orange cat on the vacuum robot was funny" _Then a happy face emoji. Then another one. He smiled and sent one back.

"_It's ok I figured you were. Those two driving you crazy yet?" _He stared at his phone for what felt like an eternity. He drummed his fingers on his thigh as he waited for her to reply. Yes! The three dots! She was texting him back!

"_Ritsu could never drive me crazy. Sho might drive Ritsu crazy though. He brought his hamster and it's whole mansion with him."_ Reigen sent her a super happy laughing emoji. She sent him one back. She liked emojis, she had said once, they made texting so much easier because they took the guesswork out of conversations. Even at fifteen she still had trouble getting a clue. He wouldn't have her any other way.

"_Mansion? That hamster lives better than I do."_ She texted back immediately that time.

"_It not a house it just a bunch of tubes and rooms. It has a bedroom, a gym, a pool, a home theatre, and a meditation space." _This is accompanied by the most elaborate hamster habitat Reigen has ever seen. Then a few more pictures of the individual rooms…was that a tiny TV? And boom box? And little beanbag chairs?

"_Does that TV work?" _was the first thing that came to mind to ask her.

"_Yes. You can attach it to your phone." _This is accompanied by a video of a hamster watching a live hamster stream in black and white.

"_We should replace the office TV with one of those." _He ends this with an LOL and another laughing emoji so she knows he's kidding.

"_And we can replace the couches with these." _She ends hers the same. There's a picture attached. A tiny sofa and loveseat set in a hamster habitat.

"_And we'll hire some hamsters."_ It takes him a moment but he sends her the first hamster in a business suit picture he finds on Google. For a moment he thinks that she lost interest but then he gets a message. Back and he finds himself letting out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding.

"_No, cats." _She sends him three pictures. A sleepy looking black cat, a scared looking brown cat, and an orange cat that looks like it's been binging on catnip and expresso.

"_You and cats. If we're getting an office pet it's going to be a dog."_ A surefire way to keep her talking, get her debating the merits of cat ownership over dog ownership. Anything to keep her talking to him.

"_Dogs need to be walked and stuff. Cats just sort of hang out. It'll be easier and it's easier to take a cat with us on jobs."_ He climbed back into bed and rolled onto his stomach.

"_Exactly! Cats just hang out. Dogs are man's best friend, cats are man's aloof roommate who sheds all over your couch."_ He waited a few moments. Was she bored? Busy? Did he say something dumb? Was he texting her too much? Was she annoyed?

"_We could just get a lint roller to get the hair off. Mom had one because my hair comes out sometimes. She says that we don't need a cat because I shed enough."_ Heh. Mob and her hair. Long, soft, and so easy to just get lost in. Also she shedded, apparently. She was so much like a cat. Adorable and soft and cuddly. Not that he had cuddled her in a while. Not since…yeah.

"_You've got hair to spare. Still down to your waist?"_ She braided her hair so often it was hard to tell how long it was. Her mom had this thing about Mob cutting her hair. Reigen didn't mind it, though, because her hair really was amazing. Everything about her was amazing.

"_It was never that long it down to the middle of my back. You're so lucky. I'm still not allowed to cut my hair just the front." _Mob troubles. Simple troubles. Parents too controlling. Fifteen year old problems. He wished he still had fifteen year old problems. Easier than twenty nine year old problems. Easier than the problems of a twenty nine year old hopelessly into a fifteen year old.

"_You're a parent's dream, Mob. You always do just what you're supposed to. Maybe I should pack you up and ship you to my mother." _Plenty of LOLs and emojis so she knew that he was kidding.

"_I could probably fit in a box but you'd have to put in air holes."_ Self-deprecating humor. Heh. He taught her that.

"_Or just fill it with LCL."_ Humor based on something she liked. She'd appreciate that. He wished she could see her smile. Any of her smiles. He hadn't seen her smile in so long…at least not directed at him…

Well he didn't get her smiling but he did get a laughing emoji.

They were ok. She wasn't…whatever she had been at him. Hurt. Heartbroken. Not his fault. One of them had to think and it had to be him. She said that she would wait and while she wasn't happy about all of it she would still…they were still ok. They were ok.

They were ok.

Silence for a little while and then-

"_I've got to go now." _Had he done something? No, she was busy. She was busy because she had a life, unlike him. There he was almost thirty and texting her like he was the one who was fifteen, not her. He was such a teenager when he was with her, sometimes. Maybe because she actually was a teenager. And wasn't that just the most fucked up thing in the world?

He needed to act his age, not his shoe size, as the saying went.

And that was why they wouldn't work together, now. Two totally different life stages. She brought out the best and the not so best in him. He needed…he needed to think about something besides her. He needed to stop being so hung up on her. He needed…he needed to see her. He needed to be with her.

And wasn't that terribly clingy? He had no reason to cling to her in the first place. She was not his girlfriend. She was not beholden to him in any way, shape, or form. He needed to stop thinking like she was. She wanted to be, though, and he couldn't give her that.

No matter how much he wanted to. No matter how much she wanted him to. Life was…life was keeping them apart.

Or maybe he just knew that he'd end up ruining her. Or maybe he was just afraid of what it would be like for him if he were to be with her. He would be the one to pay the social price, not her. Men his age did not date people her age. He had known her when she was eleven, too. Nobody would be able to look past that. Nobody who knew their history. She'd never be happy with him anyway. She thought that she would but what he wanted from her…she could not give. He wasn't thinking about the domestic bliss Serizawa thought about with his girlfriend, that guy certainly knew the meaning of moving too fast, but he did want a life with her.

She was fifteen. Her idea of romantic life was hand holding, arcades, movies, walks in the park, umbrella sharing, and maybe a kiss. He wanted everything that came after. Not just sex but a life with her. Not a house in the country with two and half kids and a dog and a cat but…just waking up next to her. Spending…spending time with her. Being with her. Supporting her and being supported.

But she did support him and he supported her. But they did spend an inordinate amount of time together already. So maybe…maybe he wouldn't ruin her if…if he maybe just gave her an inch. Just…just the parts of romantic life that she wanted. The parts that a girl her age could accept.

He could hold her hand. He could take her out to fun places. He could share an umbrella with her. He could kiss her. He had kissed her. Best kiss of his life…

An inch. He could give her an inch.

"_Hey Mob. Do you want to do something next time you're free?"_

And he wouldn't take a mile.

Mob wondered if they had walked a mile yet. Not a kilometer, those were longer. They hadn't been walking for that long.

Walking had been Mob's suggestion. The atmosphere had been kind of...weird…since breakfast. Which was cereal, something even Mob could make. Serizawa had been kind of upset…maybe….but he could never be upset at her, he had said so before. Still….when she told him who she was texting with so much…

No. He was fine. He loved her and he could never be upset with her.

Serizawa was not upset AT his girlfriend. He could never be upset at her. He was upset that…he was upset with himself for being all possessive and clingy. So what if she had been talking to Reigen? She talked to him all the time. It wasn't like she still had feelings for him or anything and Reigen certainly didn't have feelings for her.

It was like when Sho randomly texted him at all hours of the night and morning when he was feeling lonely but didn't want to admit it. Yes, that was it. Reigen was just feeling lonely and wanted to talk to someone and Mob was the someone he wanted to talk to.

Serizawa was also someone. Reigen could have talked to him or literally anyone else. Or he could have gotten his own girlfriend and not tried to…but he wasn't trying to do anything. Reigen was a friend and friends did not steal the girlfriends of their friends. Even Shimazaki stayed away from women other members of the Ultimate Five were interested in. You don't poison the well, that was what he had said.

"There aren't a lot of people out this early, it's nice, but if it's too much we can go back inside." Said Mob as they walked hand in hand down the street. Serizawa was thinking about something, probably about how big the world was and how many people were in it. Anxious. He was probably anxious.

"No, I don't mind. You like to take walks." Said Serizawa. To him this was a crowded afternoon and there was not enough room in the city today. He checked the time. Oh, still the morning. Crowded morning and there was not enough room in the city. Not as crowded and when he made his way to work. Weekdays and weekends were different. People were probably still sleeping or hanging out with their friends and families or something like that.

"I do. They're good cardio. Well, running is better cardio but we don't have running shoes on and I ran a lot this week in club." Said Mob

"Right, body improvement club. How's that been going?" Said Serizawa. Not that she needed to improve. He let his eyes linger on her. No, don't think about her like that. Only when she wants you to.

"It's ok. I miss the old members but most of them graduated already. We'll be together at Black Peppercorn again….well most of us. I still don't know if I'll be able to get in…" said Mob. It was the school that most students from Salt ended up going to but they did have some academic requirements and her grades were on the low end of normal. Not great but not bad enough that mom and dad were upset with her. Ritsu helped a lot, he was the smartest person she knew. She hoped that he had time on Sunday to help her with her math at least. She'd just end up making a complete mess of it.

"You will! You're very smart, Mob. I've seen you do your homework." Said Serizawa. She was smarter than him, he could freely admit that. Her math had numbers in it. He had never even seen math with numbers. Of course the highest level of schooling that he had was elementary school….and he didn't even finish that…

"Ritsu helps me with my homework. Ritsu and Master Reigen, but Ritsu's better at helping me. He explains things better, mostly math. Master Reigen just has the online calculator solve it." Said Mob

"I could help you! Wait, no, I couldn't…sorry. I didn't think." Said Serizawa

"You could, you're older so you probably know what to do." Said Mob

"No, sorry, I just…I never even finished elementary school. I stopped going when I was twelve and the school year wasn't over yet." Said Serizawa. He just wanted to be helpful but if even Reigen couldn't help her then of course he couldn't.

"Oh. I forgot. Sorry. You could always go back to school, though, if you wanted to. Adult school I mean, not my school. My mom went back to school when I was little. She's an accountant now. Before that she used to be a paper pusher, which my dad says means menial office worker." Said Mob

"….I've never even thought about that…" said Serizawa

"You should, school is so fun. Well, mine is. I don't know about adult school. Maybe there's clubs and friends and stuff too. Probably not sports day or the cultural festival, though. I don't know…I just really like school." Said Mob

"If you think it's a good idea…" said Serizawa. That was what proper adults did, they had schooling beyond the age of twelve. When he met her parents they'd probably be a little unhappy with the fact that he had no real schooling and that before working for Reigen his work history consisted of following around the guy who tried to take over the world and hitting people with his umbrella. They probably would tell her to find a better guy to spend her life with…but he could be better. For her he could be better.

"I do. But you can do whatever you want. Your life is your own." Said Mob. He'd have a lot of fun at school, maybe, and it would be good for him. He could make more friends. All of his friends in Claw were all scattered or hiding, which was much worse than going to different schools. She knew what it was like to have no friends and she didn't wish that feeling on anyone.

"I know but I should try and be a better man." Said Serizawa

"I think that you're a great person, Serizawa. I wouldn't be your…girlfriend…if I didn't." said Mob. The word got stuck in her mouth. That was weird. She was his girlfriend and she was happy with him. She should have no problem stating the facts as they were. She was his girlfriend and she was happy. He made her so happy.

"I can be better though, for you. You deserve…I just want to be able to make you happy." said Serizawa. She deserved so much better than he was. He tried not ask himself, again, why she wanted to be with him. He asked himself that too much. He needed stop questioning it. When something good happens to you then you aren't supposed to ask why, you were just supposed to enjoy it, and she was the best thing to ever happen to him.

"I am happy. Why don't you ever believe that? I'm happy when I'm with you, Serizawa." said Mob

"You could be happier, though." said Serizawa

"Maybe, but I don't see it like that. I want to be with you because I'm happy with you. People aren't like phones, you can't just go out and get a new one like that. You're a person and you're my person." Said Mob. The analogy got a little lost. What she had meant to say was that a person wasn't a machine that existed to make you happy and you couldn't just go to the people store and get a new one because it had more memory for games or wouldn't randomly shut off while you were listening to music. With people you had to accept them for what they were instead of worrying about what they could be. She accepted Serizawa for what he was. He was a worrier and he smothered her but she accepted that about him.

"…you're my person too, Mob." Said Serizawa. She was his person and he accepted her for what she was. Nothing about her truly bothered him. Maybe that she had been in love with Reigen…that she had confessed to him and he said no and she said that she didn't have feelings for him anymore but that morning she had been smiling while talked to Reigen the same way she smiled at him and-

They walked along hand in hand some more. No real destination, just walking. She liked to walk and he liked her and even though he still wasn't fully used to this kind of exercise he walked with her. Even though at times like these he really missed his old comfortable clothes he still walked with her. Even though his old shoes looked more and more appealing with each step he took. He walked with her, for her, to make her happy.

Mob had no real destination in mind. She just sort of led them around the city. Down roads, across streets, past landmarks familiar and unfamiliar. She wasn't lost or anything, no, not at all. If she really focused she could feel the pull of her own home. She had spent enough time that it had been bathed in her energy. If she could find her own house then she could use it to orient herself so she could then find Serizawa's house. Not that she wanted to go back just yet. This was nice, just walking around. Holding hands and walking around and loving and being loved. Master Reigen would have never walked with her like this. He didn't want to be a couple with her because he worried what people would think. Serizawa didn't care that he was sixteen years older than her and people might not like it. He still held her hand anyways.

Serizawa didn't care about the looks he was getting. If she didn't care then he didn't care. They weren't usually out and about for this long. Usually when they were out on walks together it was during the evening and never for this long. Walking with her now, hand in hand, he was getting a lot of…looks…from people. They'd look to him first, then her, then their hands, then back to him and glare, usually. Sometimes they looked puzzled. Sometimes they just looked away and scoffed. She didn't care though, so he didn't care. He loved her and she loved him so what did it matter what other people thought? Even though it was so obvious that she could have done so much better than him.

"Wait, hang on!" said Mob as they passed a row of capsule toy machines. She liked these, they were tiny cats doing tiny cat things. Too small for her to break with her powers and super cute. Cats really were the best animals.

"What?" asked Serizawa. She took her hand from his and went to a row of those capsule toy machines. Right, she liked to collect those. She said that she had a bunch in her desk drawer at home. They weren't for anything, they were just cute. Like her. She was so cute then…

"They have some new ones at this one. I usually just get them from the machine by my house." Said Mob. She put in her money and got a tiny cat. It was a black cat sitting under an umbrella all curled up and comfortable. She liked it but it seemed more like Serizawa if he had been a cat, even though his hair was more brown than black. Very dark brown. Soft too. She wanted to reach up and touch it but she didn't. She handed him the tiny cat.

"Here, it looks like you. I mean if you have been born a cat and not a person." Said Mob. He took it and looked at it for a while.

"Thank you, but it looks more like you." Said Serizawa

"Because it's black? I was thinking that too but it's under an umbrella and you're under an umbrella a lot of the time. Besides, your hair is almost black anyway." Said Mob

"No, I mean because it looks so happy." Said Serizawa. She was always happy when she was under his umbrella. Not anxious like he was.

"You look happy, Serizawa." said Mob. He always looked happy when he was with her. He put the tiny cat in his pocket and she tried her luck with another one. She got a white cat curled up on a pillow. He said that it looked like her, her skin was very pale, but in a good way. He took her hand in his, then. His skin was pale too but not as much as hers. More of a peach color to it. They stayed that way for a while until he kissed her suddenly and quickly. Even Mob noticed the look that they had gotten themselves. Maybe Master Reigen had a point.

That didn't matter. She was with Serizawa and they were having a nice time on their day off.

Mob wondered what Master Reigen was up to. If he gave both of them the day off then he was probably taking the day off too. What did he do on his days off? When he wasn't with her? The same things she did? Was he watching TV or reading manga, no he was a proper adult, reading actual books then? Did he ever go on long walks just for the sake of walking? Maybe not, he wasn't the best at exercise. She had no idea how he stayed so skinny all the time. Small, too, now that she thought about it. Serizawa was head and shoulders about him. She only came up to the bottom of Serizawa's ribs when they stood side by side. She was tiny, maybe, or maybe he was just super tall. She liked super tall, she decided. Tall enough, strong enough, to pick her up…

Serizawa wondered what was going on in her head. Well he always wondered that. She wasn't a person of big expressions, not at all, but she did express her emotions. Sometimes. This was not one of those times. He felt her eyes on her, her aura against his. He wondered, briefly, if there was something with him. Should he have combed his hair better, did he have something on his shirt, should he have shaved this morning? Or maybe she just liked looking at him. He knew he liked looking at her. She was small, very small, but pretty. Her eyes, her hair, even weird things like how long her fingers were and the bow of her lips. The innocent things he noticed about her. Of course there were other things that he noticed about her. He never let his eyes linger there, though, because she wouldn't like that. Girls didn't like it when you looked at them like that.

"What are you thinking about?" asked Mob. He was looking at her, she was looking at him. Their auras were trying to merge again.

"You, like usual." Said Serizawa with a little laugh. She really was on his mind most of the time. All of the time.

"Good thoughts?" asked Mob. He didn't know because there was nothing to know. She wasn't still in love with Master Reigen.

"Always!" said Serizawa. He loved her, he would never think bad thoughts about her. Thoughts that maybe he shouldn't have had, about their future and stuff. Thoughts that he maybe shouldn't have had because first of all he should be grateful that she even wanted to do what she did with him and second of all he could not dress her up like a maid or anything like that because, well, she would probably think that he was weird for even thinking thoughts like that.

"I was thinking about you too." Said Mob softly

"Good things?" asked Serizawa

"Of course. I was just thinking that you're really tall, that's all, and you can lift me up. I just like that, that's all. I didn't know that I would like being picked up until you did." Said Mob. He was stronger than her, bigger than her. She liked this. The way he could lift her, the weight on him on top of her, the length of himself against her like they had been last night with him and her sort of sitting up-

A streetlight glowed brightly before burning out.

"I could pick you up again if you wanted me to. Later, I mean, not now. If I picked you up now then it wouldn't be much of a walk and I know you like to walk and exercise and things like that. I just meant, you know, when we got home." Said Serizawa. He knew that look. The look on her face and the look of her aura. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about it before, picking her up and bracing her against a wall and…yeah. In the bathroom, it was the only place with enough bare wall to comfortably press her up against. Not that he would ever make her or anything. Not that he would ever even tell her a tenth of what he thought about. But if it was her idea, and it seemed like something she wanted, then it was ok.

"OK, but not up the stairs again. We could have fallen." Said Mob

"I wouldn't have let you get hurt." Said Serizawa

"I know but I don't want you to get hurt either." Said Mob. She took his hand and they kept on walking. She felt the auras of several other espers pass into her range of perception. Maybe someone that Serizawa knew. She knew that a lot of ex-Claw members had settled in Seasoning City after that awful mess with Sho's dad trying to take over the world. She vaguely recognized some of the auras, vaguely. Nobody she knew well. It was like getting a call from a number that you sort of knew but wasn't on your contacts list.

"Can you feel them too?" asked Serizawa. He knew those auras. Not well but he knew them. She might have, too. She had gotten a lot of the upper echelon on her side back when…yeah. Maybe she wanted to stop over and say 'hi'. She made friends so easily like that. What would they think when they saw him with her? Probably that she had asked him to follow her around and protect her. Probably that she was like the president and she was making him follow her, or that he was following her out of his own misguided sense of loyalty and extreme level of stupidity.

"The others? I can. Anyone you know?" asked Mob

"There's….Minegishi…that way…that's the only aura that I'm familiar with. Oh, and Hatori is…in the circuits somewhere around here. He's probably watching someone through security cameras or something like that. He does that sometimes. He can be really….nosy." said Serizawa. The two members of the Ultimate Five that he could call friends were near-ish. Well, Minegishi was but he didn't like to be bothered and Hatori was near in spirit. Serizawa wondered how his powers worked, being able to control technology like that. Of course not even Hatori knew how he worked, just that he did. Also how to spy on people and snoop through other people's browser history…not that Serizawa was still mad about that or anything.

"Want to go say hi?" asked Mob

"Maybe…I don't know. Minegishi really doesn't like it when people bother him and Hatori is…Hatori. It's just…how do you know when you're friends with someone?" asked Serizawa after a moment.

"You just do. When they want to talk to you and spend time with you when they don't have to." Said Mob

"But how do you know when it's ok to ask someone to spend time with you?" asked Serizawa

"You ask. You just sort of…ask…I guess. I don't know, I just met my friends through clubs or saving the world. They just sort of asked me to be friends and to hang out and stuff. Well, except for you. You and I just sort of…became friends." Said Mob. It hadn't been gradual between her and Serizawa like it had been between her and her other friends like Hanazawa and Tome and stuff. They met, they fought but not really, she told him off, and then they had their psychic heart to heart. Then they were friends. Maybe that was how espers made friends. She and Hanazawa had made friends after she had lost control and did all of that stuff to him, or maybe after they had saved Ritsu from Claw. Making friends was both simple and complicated, she wished that she had better advice for him. Master Reigen would know, he knew everything about social things like that.

"It's always like that with us." Said Serizawa

"What do you mean?" asked Mob

"First we became almost instant friends and then we became a couple. We move quickly, I like it. You're very…honest…like that." Said Serizawa. Was honest a good word? She was open about what she wanted. He heard that women liked to give out signals and signs that they likedyou and you were supposed to then interpret. She just came out as told him what she wanted. Back when they met, back when they started this, even now. Did she feel like this about him then, when they first met, too? Or when? He liked her then, just a little. Not what he felt now but something like it. That was good, she knew what she wanted and she asked it of him. No guessing, no figuring anything out. Just him and her and them together.

"I try to be, I don't like to tell lies. I wanted to be with you so I decided to be with you. When I want something I go for it, I don't like to wait around. There's no point in waiting if you know what you want and how to get it." Said Mob. She wanted to be more popular and make friends so she joined clubs and stuff. She wanted to be with Master Reigen so she confessed to him. She wanted to feel better so she slept with, started a relationship with, Serizawa. What was the point of waiting around when you knew exactly what you wanted?

"You're right, you're always right." Said Serizawa. She was wise, smart, good at things like this. She never had to deal with paralyzing fear, the constant thoughts of what could go wrong, how she could mess up. She never messed up. How could she? This was Mob. She knew exactly who she was and who she wanted to be. She never worried, never doubted herself. Not like him. He had no idea what he wanted, beyond a life with her. She made him less…lonely…too. He missed her when she was gone. He missed all the people in his life that he cared about. They hadn't been as good friends as he had thought, maybe, but he did miss them.

In the end they had walked down to where he felt Minegishi was. He could be kind of prickly but he was nice when you got to know him, or when he got very drunk. He was working and Serizawa was a little weary of bothering him but he could always get Mob a plant. She liked plants, living plants, and with her powers she could make it grow really fast and in any way she wanted. He wondered how her plant control abilities compared to Minegishi's. He had only seen her grow office plants, nothing as impressive or as terrifying as what Minegishi could do. Not that he doubted her abilities or anything. Not that he ever could doubt her.

Did she want a plant? Maybe they could get one, just to have something together that they could nurture and take care of. The internet said that the true test of a couple was whether or not they could keep something alive. A plant would be good because even if she lost control and broke the pot it came in she could always replant and heal it. She probably liked plants, then, maybe. She couldn't hurt them. She was afraid of herself, sometimes. She understood what it was like. A lot of people with powers weren't afraid of themselves, she was the only person he had ever met that was. When he told the others in the Ultimate Five his story they didn't get it, what it was like. Minegishi hadn't laughed at him, though, and told off Shibata for laughing. Minegishi could be nice, sometimes, when he wanted to be. Maybe he and Mob would get along. Both could be kind of gloomy and both could control plants. Oh, and both liked pink, too.

Mob wondered what his friend, Minegishi, was really like. When he wasn't trying to take over the world or scared for his life.

"It smells nice in here, I like it." Said Mob. This was a flower shop so of course it would smell like flowers. She just hadn't expected it to smell so…heavily….of flowers. Of plants and wet dirt and life. She could feel the other aura, she knew this aura, all around her in the plant life. She walked slowly through the rows of plants, some cut and in a sort of state of half life and some planted and in a state of actual life. Flowers, so many flowers. So pretty. So alive.

"Serizawa….? Is that…?" asked Minegishi. He felt two auras long before he saw the espers that they were attached to. Not that he could ever forget these two espers, no. Serizawa he had expected one of these days, the guy had always considered the two of them to be friends, the girl on the other hand….

"Hi! I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi! So, uh, hi!" said Serizawa. Beside him Mob nodded. He looked to her to see if he was being awkward. She seemed fine to in turn he was fine.

"These plants are nice. Did you grow them all yourself?" asked Mob. When he wasn't using plants to kill people or take over the world he could grow some very nice ones.

"Yes, most of them. So, what brings you here, besides saying hi?" asked Minegishi as he took them both in. Serizawa was wearing actual clothes, a first for him. He looked a lot better, too. Groomed, like he was actually going out in the world. The girl looked different too. Younger than she had. Less….terrifying. Her aura was even different, more pink in it then blue, and moving less intensely. Well at least the world probably wasn't in danger.

"Nothing, just that. I just haven't seen you in a while and I was wondering how you were doing." Said Serizawa. He knew Minegishi. That wasn't his mad face, that was just his resting face, very bored. Kind of like Mob's.

"Friends just say hi sometimes." Said Mob simply. Maybe adult friends were different. Not that she understood why they would be. Friendship was friendship.

"Well then, hi. I'm doing fine. I've put aside my aspirations for world domination and instead tend to plants for 1500 yen an hour. You two?" asked Minegishi. Serizawa was standing near her. Very near. His aura was trying to bond with hers. She looked bored as ever. Powerful as ever.

He had never asked her motivations. He just accepted that she had saved his life and switched sides. To her side. Was he still on her side? Were there still sides? Serizawa was obviously on her side…as were a few other espers. What were her aspirations? And why keep Serizawa around unless she had some. It wasn't like she needed to protection.

"We're taking a walk through the city. I've never been this far from home before. I never even knew this place was here. It's so cool, like an indoor garden except some of the plants are dead." Said Mob simply. She felt Minegishi's aura tap hers. She tapped his back.

"They're not all the way dead. I can replant them if I need to. So could you, probably. So, any particular destination to this walk?" Said Minegishi. If she wanted to she could easily override his control. So easily. Like that spirit had…but she didn't have any negative intent. Not violent or murderous. She had been telling the truth, she and Serizawa were on a walk. But why? Checking up on everyone? Building her own organization up?

"Nope! She just wanted to take a walk and you happened to be in the direction we ended up walking in." said Serizawa. Minegishi was doing well, he was so happy for him! And he liked Mob! They were so alike, sort of.

"What, you're on a date or something?" asked Minegishi. Say something absurd and then wait for the truth to come out.

"I think this counts as a date, or are we just hanging out?" asked Serizawa. A plant beside him grew out of it's pot in a second.

"I think it's a date. I think that this weekend counts as one long date. I don't know the exact rules though but we can call this a date if you want to." Said Mob. When you were in a couple then everything counted as a date, probably, and when you weren't in a relationship then it was never a date. Yes, that would make sense.

"Sorry about that." Said Minegishi shrinking the plant down to a more manageable size. They were serious. Serizawa and that girl…who he didn't even know the name of.

"It's ok, I lose control sometimes too." Said Mob fixing the pot. Well, as best as she could. She felt Minegishi's aura studying hers. She let him. No hostile intent from him at all. Not like when they had met.

"So the two of you are…together?" asked Minegishi. Serizawa was with the girl who took down the organization. That girl. Serizawa. Of all the ex-Claw members she picked Serizawa. Not that Minegishi was jealous. She looked way too young for him. Way, way, too young. As in Hatori wasn't making things up when he decided to air Serizawa's browser history to the entire organization. Of course Hatori wasn't.

"Yes. She's my girlfriend, we've been together for a few weeks now. Are you seeing anyone?" Said Serizawa. Minegishi was giving him a look, a look that he had been seeing a lot of that day. Serizawa was tempted to ask what that look was about. Was it really so amazing that someone like her would want to be with someone like him? Of course it was.

"No, still painfully single at the moment. Just me and the plants. Have you heard from the others lately?" said Minegishi. So either the two of them were legitimately a couple, possible, or the girl was gathering up ex-Claw members for her own purposes. Probable.

"I felt Hatori earlier but we don't really talk. The others are mostly underground or working for the yakuza now. We don't really talk that much." Said Serizawa

"Well you should, we are friends after all." Said Minegishi. Not a lie, not really. You couldn't work in such close quarters with a person for three years without either becoming their friend or hating their guts. He'd like to be kept in the loop to, to whatever was going on with that girl. That impossibly powerful girl, the one who had defeated the entire organization including the president himself. Maybe she had her own plans for world domination, maybe she was building a harem. Hell, maybe she just wanted stickers and soda and candy and other things that girls her age wanted. Not that he knew her exact age but based on her height, the baby face, the braids, the length of her skirt, and the T-Shirt with some anime character on it she was somewhere in her teens.

"You're right! We are!" said Serizawa. Conversation came easy after that. Everyone was doing well, just piecing their lives back together like he was. Minegishi was doing better than most, having found a job he enjoyed and not having to go into hiding or working for shady people again. Mob joined in on the conversation too, which made him happy because that meant that she was happy. They talked until a customer came in. He and Mob took their leave then and set back off on their long walking trip through the city.

Mob, or rather Mob's desire to not die of dehydration, took them to a convenience store with two very familiar auras. Two more ex-Claw members, upper echelon, former scars. Sakurai and Koyama. For a moment they all fell back into their respective roles within Claw, just for a moment.

Serizawa as the boss' second. The two of them as scars. They had even treated Mob like the boss for a moment, just a moment. Not for longer, though, because she was nothing like Suzuki. She said hi, for one thing, and asked after how they had been doing. Genuine interest.

Mob had no idea that this many ex-Claw members were so close, well close-ish, to where she lived. So many of them were living better lives and stuff like that. People could change! She was so happy for them, even if the atmosphere had felt a little awkward in the beginning. They were looking at her a lot and in a way that nobody had ever looked at her before. Short answers, most of them directed at Serizawa. He passed them back to her even though she was literally standing right there. That passed, though, when she asked how everyone had been. Then the atmosphere got much more relaxed.

Mob, of course, had no idea that what was to her a pleasant conversation was actually an attempt at information mining. Similar thoughts and worries to Minegishi's ran through Sakurai's and Koyama's minds. What, if anything, was she planning? And why would she have Serizawa with her if she wasn't planning anything? The guy was looking better, they'd give him that, but it wasn't like she was keeping him around for his sparking personality.

Then it came out that she, the most powerful being on Earth, was dating Serizawa, the most awkward man on Earth. Not that either of them knew him personally, just as the guy who followed the president around, didn't always brush his teeth, wore pajamas all the time, and looked at the ground a lot unless someone was addressing him or the president. For some reason she was dating him. She, a girl of her age, not that either of them knew her exact age, was dating Serizawa.

After goodbyes were said a debate was had. Sakurai was of the opinion that she must have been planning something. Thank God she was the peace and love type, it seemed. Only being violent when pushed to it. Koyama added that obviously that was what Serizawa was for and she could have been planning to take over the world with her own regime of peace and love. Neither of them knew her personally so they couldn't speak to her character. The debate eventually devolved into an argument as to how old she actually was and how to find out without just coming out and asking her.

Sakurai said that she was obviously a teenager. Koyama said that she obviously could not have been a teenager based on her immense power level and the fact that she had added Serizawa to her harem.

Which then turned into a rehashing of various rumors they had heard about Serizawa and the president. The old president, Suzuki, not the new president, Kageyama.

Mob, of course, could not even begin to imagine the rumors that were starting to circulate around her. She walked hand in hand with Serizawa, one hand in his and the other around an ice cold bottle of milk, and talked to him about how happy she was that so many people were doing well. Serizawa was so wrapped up in listening to her that he didn't notice the first few times his phone had vibrated. He noticed but did not take it out to check. That wouldn't be polite, it might even pop the soap bubble that was that moment between them. She was at the part of the conversation where she got super into it and she was smiling a little and stuttering and it was the cutest thing and he could not pop the soap bubble of that moment.

"….so then I could maybe change, too! I just want to be better than…you've seen me explode. If everyone can change then I can change. It's not a special thing, to be able to change, so then maybe I could because I'm not anything special." Said Mob. She wasn't. She was plain and sounded boring and looked bored all the time. Serizawa thought that she was perfect but that didn't mean that she was perfect. Ritsu thought that boiled pork was good but pork feet were gross but that didn't mean that he was right. Pork was pork.

"You know that I think that you're perfect." Said Serizawa as they walked along the road. They had gone sort of in a circle, he was starting to recognize landmarks again. His feet were killing him but he said nothing. She seemed fine. Not the least bit tired. Maybe because she was so young. Maybe he was just getting old.

"I know, but I don't think that I'm perfect. I mean, nobody's perfect but I just want to be…better." Said Mob

"I understand that. I don't think that you need to improve but I'll stand beside you no matter what you do." Said Serizawa omitting the fact that he could barely stand. How could she just walk for hours and hours like this?

"But your legs are all shaky. Do you want to rest?" asked Mob. She knew that look, she had that look many times before. Back when she first started in body improvement club and she couldn't even begin to keep up with the others. He fought on too hard. Poor Serizawa…she should have noticed how tired he was getting.

"Only if you want to." Said Serizawa praying that she wanted to.

"We can get something to eat. I mean, we haven't eaten anything since breakfast and it's lunchtime now. Or we can go back to your house and cook, we aren't that far. At least I think we aren't." said Mob

"We're not that far but I want to get you lunch." Said Serizawa. He did not want to cook or do anything when he got home but rest. How did she have so much energy? Did he have that much energy when he was her age? Maybe, not that he had any opportunities to do much walking back then.

"I can get my own lunch, Serizawa. I brought money." Said Mob shaking her pockets so jingling could be heard.

"No, I want to get you lunch. You're my girlfriend after all." Said Serizawa. A passing eavesdropper gave him a long look.

"Ok, if you really want to. Want to get ramen?" asked Mob

"We could go somewhere nice if you want." Said Serizawa

"Ramen is nice." Said Mob

"No, I meant nicer. But if you want ramen let's get ramen." Said Serizawa. Ramen was what she got with Reigen, it was his favorite. Well one of his favorites. What were her favorites? Milk and ramen. Well then it looked like it was going to be ramen because unless there was a dairy nearby, and milk wasn't a meal anyway, ramen was her favorite.

Something that she and Reigen had in common.

He made an effort not to think about Reigen Arataka. Not as they sat down, not as they ordered, and not as they ate. Well, she mostly ate. He was just enjoying not being on his feet. Crocs. He wished that proper adults could wear crocs out and about in the world.

"Where do you want to walk to next? The little park again? Or the big one with the fountain? There's also one with a cat that lives in a tree. It's brown and fluffy. Brown is a rare cat color, I read, so it's a special cat…" said Mob. Serizawa nodded and listened to her. Sure. For her he'd walk across the entire archipelago…he totally would!

"Wherever you want to." Said Serizawa. Mob looked over at him. They had been sitting for almost half an hour and he didn't look any more rested. Maybe because he was older than she was. Master Reigen had trouble running and walking for long periods of time, too. Then again he smoked all the time. Serizawa never smoked. She missed the smell of cigarette smoke, sometimes, but less lately.

"If you're too tired we can go back to your house….or apartment. Sorry, it's an apartment." Said Mob looking down at her ramen. She felt warm. Maybe she was tired, too. Or maybe it was the way that his hair was plastered to his head. The way he'd undone the top two buttons of his shirt. He looked kind of like Master Reigen did after a particularly difficult curse removal.

"No, I knew what you meant. We can go home if you want. Whatever you want, Mob." Said Serizawa finally eating something. Oh yes, that was heaven! Food! Life sustaining food! Energy replenishing food! The broth in his ramen bubbled. He calmed down. Wow, how he had been so hungry? No wonder she ate so fast.

"What do you want?" asked Mob

"Whatever you want." Said Serizawa

"You have to want things, everyone wants things. It can't always been what I want, that makes me feel bossy." Said Mob

"I want…" said Serizawa. He wanted so much. He wanted her love and acceptance and caring and understanding and a future with her and also to lay down and cuddle and hold her again because he was exhausted.

"My broth?" asked Mob pushing her bowl towards him. It was just the broth left over now. He looked hungry, super hungry. She sometimes gave Master Reigen her broth, and he gave her his. They'd swap ending broth if they got different kinds of ramen. She was just sharing her broth now, not hoping that they'd swap or anything. Nope.

"Thank you but you can have it. I'm not done with mine. I want to go home and rest…but only if you want to!" said Serizawa before eating quickly. Mob nodded and finished off her milk. Master Reigen always asked her how she could eat a full meal and drink milk on top of it. Serizawa didn't ask, he didn't even ask if she wanted milk. He remembered that she liked it. He remembered a lot of things about her.

"I do. Rest would be…nice." Said Mob, her eyes resting his undone buttons. He was wearing an undershirt, a pity. Serizawa watched her aura and her face. He didn't have that kind of rest in mind but for her…for her he would.

Wow. He had gotten to the point in his life that he was too tired to have sex. If a younger version of himself ever came to the future and saw this he'd beat up his future self for even considering turning her down.

His phone vibrated again. For a moment he thought that it actually was past Katsuya telling him off. No, it was present…a number he did not recognize. A text, a bunch of texts. A screenshot of him kissing Mob taken from a security camera.

"_Explain!"_

Oh. Hatori. So he was near.

"_She's my girlfriend." _He sent back quickly. He shouldn't check his phone at the table, it wasn't polite. He had a lot of messages, though. Reigen wanted to know how his date was going, his mother wanted to know when he'd make his check-in phone call, and a bunch of people from numbers he didn't know wanted to know what was up with the organization, and someone just asked him…huh? He clicked his phone shut. That was…he was not answering that question.

"_What's it like to fuck a God?"_

He was not answering that question. First of all he was not fucking her, he was making love with her. With her. With her because it was mutual and it had to be mutual or else one partner would be left unsatisfied and then there would be no point to it, as the internet had said. Secondly she was not a God she was just super overpowered and the most powerful being on Earth. Thirdly that wasn't anybody's business! Especially not…that wasn't Hatori he never asked questions like that. Shimazaki, maybe. He asked questions like that just to get a rise out of people.

He put his phone on the table and it vibrated again. She checked her phone, too, and her eyebrows raised. Bad news?

His phone vibrated again. He clicked it on.

"_Explain!"_ and then _"Explain right now!"_

"_She loves me and I love her and we're a couple. Why so nosy?"_ There. What more did he need?

"_Explain better!"_ Apparently a lot more explanation. She was looking at him, now. Serizawa put his phone away where it belonged.

"What's wrong? Bad news?" asked Mob. She stirred what little was left in her bowl with her powers. Master Reigen wanted to hang out with her. Just her. Why? No, as friends. No point in getting her hopes up. Not that she had any hopes at all.

"No, just…nothing. What about you? Bad news?" asked Serizawa. He had never seen her eyebrows rise so high and her aura was acting up, too.

"Nothing." Said Mob. It wasn't a lie. Master Reigen just wanted to hang out with her. He had wanted to hang out with her a bunch of times before. It was nothing. There was some silence while she kept on stirring her broth with her powers.

"Are you still hungry?" asked Serizawa thinking only of her wellbeing and not at all wanting to buy himself some more time to rest before he had to stand again. She just looked hungry, that was all, the way she was stirring the last of her broth around.

"No, just thirsty." Said Mob. They never put enough milk in the glasses. They needed tall glasses at these places, milk glasses. Or maybe just a milk fountain like they had for soft drinks. But then the milk would have to be carbonated. Carbonated milk was good but it didn't have a long shelf life. Maybe frozen carbonated milk. No, wait, how would that look. Or maybe they could just put it in fancy bottles, like whatever the couple at the other table was drinking.

"You want some?" asked Serizawa following her gaze. Sake. Ick. But maybe she'd like it. Everyone said that it was an acquired taste. Serizawa didn't much see the point in drinking something that burned when it went down until you learned to like it.

"Of what?" asked Mob

"That." Said Serizawa motioning towards the other table.

"I don't know what it is but it must be good if it's in such a pretty bottle." Said Mob. That was the rule for drinks. The nicer the bottle the better the drink. Like how the best strawberry milk came in the bottle that smelled and tasted and looked like a strawberry.

"That's sake, it's…some people like it." Said Serizawa. He didn't but, according to Shimazaki, he had the palette of a twelve year old.

"Oh. I can't drink that then. I'm still too young." Said Mob. It must have been good, though, if people her age weren't allowed to have it but adults loved it. Adults got to have all the fun.

"That's alright, you can just drink from my cup. Nobody would notice." Said Serizawa. Reigen gave good advice, even if Mob had been into him before. Mob thought for a long moment. She was an adult in her mind so it was ok. She did all the things that adults did. She had a job and a boyfriend and had sex and had even saved the world so, yes, she was an adult and then this was fine.

This stuff was awful. Why did it burn?!

No, wait, you got used to the burning.

This stuff was pretty good.

Wait…why'd Serizawa take it away?

Meanie.

Mob tried to pull it back with her powers but he stopped her. She managed to pull the table, though, and after that Serizawa paid and they walked home.

Or rather he carried her.

He was so strong.

"Serizawa….where're we going?" asked Mob, her eyes closed. She buried her face against him. He was so warm and he smelled nice. This was her new favorite place in the whole, wide, world.

"Back to my house, remember? Are you ok? You only had…but you are tiny….but that was just three sips…small sips…but you are tiny…please don't be dying of alcohol poisoning…" muttered Serizawa as he carried her home. Who cared if his feet were killing him? Who cared if he was getting a lot of looks? Who cared his she was kicking him a little bit? He had no idea that this would affect her so much. Was she going to die? People died of this, right? He was never, ever, taking Reigen's advice again for the rest of his life.

"I'm not dying, don't be silly. I've almost died so many times already….did you know that? I thought that I was going to die…but then I didn't…and you wouldn't let me die…can I have more sake?" asked Mob kicking her legs a little. She could walk, she would walk. She had legs and there was nothing wrong with them! But then again this was her new favorite place….but she was getting motion sick….but he was so strong…but she wasn't little…but he smelled nice…but she was capable….but he was so nice…but her shoe was going to fall off…but Master Reigen could have never carried her like this…but Master Reigen would have never even wanted to carry her like this…but…wait, who was she arguing with? Not the other her, she was quiet, like she was asleep. Herself? The idea of herself that existed in her mind, not the literal other her that only came out when she exploded? Or something that she had invented to illustrate the abstract concept of thought? Or maybe she was just an abstract concept. Or maybe she just needed more sake. More sake and more Serizawa. Being inside couldn't come fast enough. Hey, that meant two things!

"I know, I remember….and I won't let anything happen to you." Said Serizawa. He put her down on her feet. She wasn't full on drunk, thank God, because that would have been awful. Her hair was levitating and she was shuffling in place but not falling down or throwing up. Ok, don't freak out. She's fine. She's happy. You made her this happy.

"I know that! You always keep me safe even when it smothers me!" said Mob

"I…smother you?" asked Serizawa. Had he held her too tight last night? Did she never want to sleep next to him again? Was she mad at him? Was she-

"Yes! But I don't mind because that just means that you love me and I am so happy that I have someone who loves me. Now walk faster. I want to be inside! Then you can be…I can't finish it! Too…much! I can't say stuff like that, I'm not Sho! He'd say something like that….I hope he and Ritsu are ok….I hope Sho didn't…burn the house down again!" laughed Mob. She spun in place and stumbled a little. Serizawa took her hand and they walked home together. She was so happy looking so she probably wasn't going to die…she knew what it felt like when she was in danger of dying…no. Focus on how happy she was. How happy she was and how goo it'll feel to lay down and maybe sleep a little bit or just cuddle her because she's just so small and perfect and there. She tugged on his shirt.

"Hey….I love you." Said Mob because she knew how much he liked to hear it. She loved him and he loved her and they would be so happy. She loved Serizawa. Not Master Reigen. She had to loved Serizawa because he loved her and if she didn't love him back well then she would be terrible.

And she did not want to be terrible.


	12. Having fun and being in love

Mob woke up slowly. She stretched before she opened her eyes. She was super thirsty, super groggy, and super warm. She shifted a little. She either had a lot of blankets on top of her or one very heavy blanket. She opened her eyes, Serizawa's opened laptop on the tiny table came into focus. He was reading something about recognizing the signs of alcohol poisoning.

Right. Sake.

Sake was great. Sake was terrible. Sake made her happy. Sake made her weird. Mob sat up slowly, her head feeling sort of heavy-ish. The blinds were opened and there was still sunlight coming through so she hadn't been asleep for very long. Her clothes were still on, too. It felt weird laying in a bed with her daytime clothes on. She felt around for Serizawa with her aura. Oh, he was in the kitchen.

"I'm just thinking about it, she says that it would be a good idea." For a moment Mob thought that he was talking to her but it sounded like he was on the phone with someone. She knew that it was wrong to listen but she was curious. One of his friends? Plus there was only one real room so it was hard not to overhear.

"I don't know yet, mom, I'll tell you when I figure it out….uh-huh….no I want to….she's here….she just woke up….I'll ask her…." said Serizawa. He walked back into the main room and for a moment he just looked at her. She was so…cute. Her hair was all rumpled and some of it was coming out of her braids, she had some sleep in her eyes, and her shirt was pulled really far to one side. So cute…

"Mob! You're awake!" said Serizawa as she stirred. She was so cute. She was so cute when she yawned and stretched and tried to come back to the waking world.

"I don't even remember falling asleep." Said Mob rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"You fell asleep while I was carrying you so I put you to bed….I actually thought that you were…never mind! You're fine and that's what matters, Mob. Anyway do you want to talk to my mom? We usually have our check-in call on Saturdays or Sundays and she called and we were talking and she really wants to meet you but she lives far away so she wants to talk to you-" said Serizawa

"Facetime, Katsuya, I want to see her." came a tinny voice from the phone speaker.

"Right, sorry mom. She wants to Facetime with you…but only if you want to! I mean, if it's too early or you're too tired or-" said Serizawa gauging her reaction. He was torn between the fact that it might have been too early and the fact that his mother really wanted to meet his girlfriend. Both women were very important in his life, the most important. His mom had taken care of him for years even though he had lost control with his powers an accidentally thrown her. Even though he had been so completely useless and worthless during his self imposed exile she had always been there. Even though he didn't visit her very often, even though he had gotten involved with Claw, something that she must surely have been ashamed of him over, she had always been there. He didn't want to upset her or let her down. He was rejoining society, he was making something of himself, he was going to be a man that she could be proud to call her son. He wanted so much to please her and make her happy but he didn't want to upset Mob and maybe it was too early and maybe-

"Ok." Said Mob. Serizawa's mom might have been really nice, Mob was happy to meet her. Right? Right. That was what girlfriends did, they met their boyfriend's parents. It felt very…grown up. Yes, grown up. But she was right to feel like that because meeting his mother was a very grown up thing to do. Permanence. It felt like permanence. That was a good thing. That was what adult relationships were, permanence.

"Really?! That's great! Here!" said Serizawa. He passed her his phone. She took it with her powers and hit the Facetime button. There was a moment before it loaded. Serizawa sat next to her, she scooted over. She used her powers to fix her shirt and hair quickly.

"Katsuya, I'm so happy…for…you…" said his mother as the picture finished loading. She stared. Mob stared back. She looked like Serizawa, Mob decided. Same curly hair, though hers was grey. Same soft eyes. Same nose, too. He had said, before, that he looked like his mother.

"Mom, this is Mob. I mean Shigeko. I mean her given name is Shigeko but she likes to be called Mob!" said Serizawa. He reached over and took her hand in his. He was getting too nervous, he knew it. What if mom didn't like her? What if she didn't like mom? What if they didn't get along and they spent the rest of their lives not getting along and then there would be so much…people not getting along…for the rest of their lives and their kids would grow up in that and-

"Hi…I'm Mob." Said Mob softly. She didn't know what she was supposed to say, exactly, so she said hi. Hi was good, a safe greeting. What did she even call this woman? Mrs. Serizawa? It felt weird in her mind, she called Serizawa by his family name all the time.

"Hello…Mob. How are you?" asked his mother after a while. Her voice sounded kind of far away, kind of stiff.

"I'm fine, how are you?" asked Mob. She was staring a lot. Mob was staring back. Serizawa was holding her hand like she was going to run away. She didn't feel like running away. Even though his mother was looking at her funny. Like how mom looked that time when she walked in on Ritsu and Sho being all cuddly on the couch that one time she came home early. Or like the time mom walked in on her when she was in her room trying to have some time to herself but mom came in and asked her why the house was shaking and Mob could only say reasons. Then mom stared at her and walked out slowly. That had been awkward. Kind of like this.

"I'm…fine…Mob. So, how long have you known Katsuya?" asked his mother. Serizawa held her hand tighter. He told mom already that he had met her back when he…when all of the unpleasantness happened.

"About a year, Mrs. Serizawa." said Mob

"Right, Katsuya told me. You met during the unpleasantness…" said Mrs. Serizawa, and it felt weird to mentally refer to her as Mrs. Serizawa. She always called Serizawa by his family name. It just fit. She didn't think of him as Katsuya and he didn't think of her as Shigeko. Of course nobody else was called Mob but there was another person called Serizawa and it was just…odd.

"She saved me mom, remember?" asked Serizawa. When did mom get so forgetful? Was she getting old? When did people start getting old? She was sixty two, now, and her hair was grey and her face had wrinkles now but she wasn't all hunched over like his grandparents and maybe he had just aged her by making her take care of him but he hoped that she was happy now because she didn't have him dragging her down and making her work herself to death because he was a member of society now and he didn't need his mother to make him food or force him to take a bath or cut his hair for him or-

"First we beat each other up but then I saved him." said Mob. Of course now she got the feeling that it had been the wrong thing to say. That was how it happened, though. They beat each other up, not that they had been trying to kill or hurt on another, just incapacitate, and now they were friends. A couple. Two people in a romantic relationship.

"Right, you stopped that…Suzuki…Mob…may I ask you a personal question?" asked Mrs. Serizawa

"Yes." said Mob. She hoped that it wasn't too personal. She hoped that it wasn't something personal at all. But it would be and she did not like to tell lies to even her own mother let alone someone else's.

"How old are you?" that question took a while to come out. Serizawa had been gripping her hand so tightly that she wondered if her fingers would fall off from lack of blood flow. His aura was visible, now, and it was trying to mix with, no, cling to, hers. Mob didn't see what the big deal was or what was so personal about that. People asked her how old she was all the time. It was a simple question…or was it? Was his mother going to be like her mother? She knew for a fact that mom would never let her be with Serizawa like this, and maybe his mom was like her mom. When, if ever, did moms stop having power over you?

"I'm fifteen. I'll be sixteen in May. Next May, my birthday just passed." Said Mob. His mom's eyes went wide. Then her eyes darted between Serizawa and her. Then she took a deep breath. Serizawa began to shake. The room began to shake.

"Katsuya…can I talk to you in the other room?" asked Mrs. Serizawa. Serizawa got out of bed quickly and walked to the kitchen. Mob wanted to say that there was no other room besides the bathroom. She didn't, though, because maybe the kitchen counted as another room even though there wasn't a wall or door between this room and the main room. She sat on the edge of the bed and tried to hear what they were saying even though eavesdropping was wrong. She heard bits and pieces.

"_No, it's not illegal or anything. I checked."_

"_I love her."_

"_Middle school."_

"_Work."_

"_She loves me."_

"_I haven't asked her about it yet but I'd like to."_

"_Mom! Of course we've…I don't want to talk about that with you!"_

"_No she takes medicine for that…"_

"_I don't care if our kids are espers….she's not even pregnant yet…."_

It's the yet that makes Mob stop breathing. Outside she sees the streetlights come on and burn much too brightly before turning off again. Good. At least she didn't blow the power to the building again. Yet. YET. She could…he wanted to…they could…

Mob felt her stomach. She pushed down on it, in on it. It felt normal. She felt normal. She called her phone over and checked the date. She wasn't late. If not by next week then she'd be late but she wouldn't be because she took her medicine but she didn't always take it at the same exact time but she always got rid of…everything…afterwards. She hated the slick, slimy feeling. It was just so…gross.

She didn't want to have a baby. She was fifteen. She couldn't but he…he wanted to? That was what the yet meant. The yet meant that he expected to have a baby with her. Well that was what adults did, wasn't it? They had babies. She was an adult and not a child so of course she…wanted…to…

Mob laid down and pulled the blanket up over her head. She didn't want to think about this. She was not ready to think about this. She was not a baby but she still didn't want to think about it. A life and a family and a home and being someone's, Serizawa's, wife and them being married like her parents were married and them being parents like her parents were parents and-

"Are you sleeping?" asked Serizawa as he sat down on the bed. What was with mom? Why couldn't she just be happy? He was rejoining society and had found someone who he loved and who loved him in return. Who cared if she was sixteen years younger than him? Who cared if their kids would end up being espers? He was happy and she was happy and that was all that mattered. She'd reach the age of majority in three short years and then they could start a life together and they'd be so, very, happy.

"No." said Mob. Serizawa pulled the blanket up and laid down next to her. They were silent for a moment.

"My mom likes you…I mean she will like you." Said Serizawa because he had to say something. There was no other room, at least a real room. There was a bathroom but sound carried through the vents and he didn't want to disturb his neighbors.

"She didn't like me?" asked Mob. Why? What had she done wrong? Was she too awkward? She was. Of course she was.

"She's going to. She's just…I don't know. She's really fixated on the age thing. I guess she's like your mother. I guess all mothers are alike…not that I think that about you! Not that I think that you'll be…that you are…I mean in the future!" said Serizawa tripping over his words. It was like he was trying to start a million sentences at once. She sat up and stared at him.

"You want us to have a baby right now?" asked Mob. No. No way. She was giving that a hard no. She was fifteen. She made three hundred yen an hour. She wasn't even in high school yet. Mom would kill her.

"No! I mean, not right now! I mean…I'm not…we're not…ready. I mean…I love you and I want to have a life with you and I think about it all the time but…but it's also really scary and too early and-and I would never ask that of you….now! I mean…I want whatever you want." Said Serizawa

"…..that's what you're supposed to do when you're in a relationship, right? I mean…there's an order of things…but right now I-I want to have fun and….I just want to have fun and be in love with you." Said Mob. That was all she really wanted. Fun times and hanging out. That was what a couple was…but not really. Adult couples were different and she was an adult…she really was!

"We are having fun. I mean, I thought you were. I didn't mean now or anything, it's just…something I think about. I don't know. I just think about it and then my mother kept on saying things like 'any kid I have is going to be an esper too' and 'she was too old to take care of a baby' and things like that. I don't want that right now…I mean I like having fun and being in love with you and I want you be happy. I only want to make you happy, Mob. That's what you do when you love someone, you do whatever you can to make sure that they're happy." Said Serizawa

"I was. I am. I really like spending time with you like this. I am happy and you make me happy and I just…I don't usually think that far ahead. Right now the farthest I'm thinking ahead is what high school I'm going to get into." Said Mob

"You'll get in, Mob. You're so smart. Your math has numbers and letters in it, which I don't have the first idea what to do with." Said Serizawa. Mob smiled.

"Neither do I." said Mob softly. She smiled and looked up at Serizawa. He looked down and after a moment kissed her. He could feel her smiling. There was not better feeling, no better sight, than her smile.

"I'm sorry you had a fight with your mom. I mean it sounded kind of like a fight…" said Mob

"No! It wasn't! Mom and I never fight. I think she was just worried. She kept on talking about how I barely avoided prison for…everything….and then she was worried because you're so young. I don't know. I don't mind but I guess she does." Said Serizawa

"Oh….my mom would mind too…so I understand." Said Mob

"But she will like you! I mean, once she gets to know you she'll love you like her own daughter. But not in the we're brother and sister sort of way! That would be…weird." Said Serizawa

"I know! I never understand that. Even if they aren't blood siblings they still grew up together and when they are blood siblings it's so-" said Mob

"Weird!" they both said at once.

"I just…I love Ritsu but I don't want to marry him or anything. Yuck." Said Mob shaking her head.

"Also Sho would probably fight you." Said Serizawa

"He definitely would fight me. He said that he would. If I did anything to hurt you, not if I tried to marry Ritsu. He's going to marry Ritsu, probably, if they ever let two boys get married. They should, it's only fair." Said Mob

"Maybe they will. I don't see why not. Sho really cares about Ritsu, he talks about him all the time. Well, when he comes here. We don't hang out as much as we used to." Said Serizawa

"I didn't know that you and Sho were such good friends." Said Mob

"We used to be better friends. We'd hang out a lot, when he was little. Before Suzuki let him go off on his own. He's doing good, though, Sho I mean. I'm happy for him." said Serizawa

"I'm happy for him too, him and Ritsu. I used to be worried, mostly because Sho beat Ritsu up and burnt our house down, but now I know that they're happy. Sho loves Ritsu so much, as much as he loves his hamster. Maybe even more." Said Mob

"If that's possible." Said Serizawa

"It is. I bet Sho would build Ritsu a plastic house made out of tubes if he asked. He already built him a regular house made out of bricks and wood and plaster and stuff." Said Mob

"…I could…I mean…never mind." Said Serizawa

"Could what?" asked Mob

"Just something I think about, sometimes. Just what kind of house you'd like to live in." said Serizawa

"Oh, you mean like my dream house?" asked Mob

"Yes, just like that." Said Serizawa

"Well Ritsu would definitely have to live there, and Sho too I guess. Everyone would have their own floor to do whatever they wanted on but we'd also all hang out on a floor. Also there'd be a washing machine and a dryer and a giant bathtub. And it would be pink, purple, and green. Oh, and there'd be a room with no windows so you would feel safe." Said Mob. Serizawa hadn't been in her original plan but she figured that she had to consider him into her perfect house fantasy. He had no intention of not being with her and she knew that she could never break his heart to it looked like they would be together.

Forever.

"…I don't need to be in a windowless room, Mob, I'm getting better." Said Serizawa even though the thought of a windowless room seemed like it would be pretty nice. Even though sometimes the world was too big and stretched out too far and he needed to be under his umbrella because it kept him safe but it didn't it was just something that the president gave him to manipulate him and he didn't need it but if he didn't need it then why did he immediately go out and get one to replace the one that got ruined when he betrayed Suzuki, no, defected to Mob's side?

"I know you are. You went outside without your umbrella earlier. That's really good and I'm happy that you were so brave." Said Mob

"…I was only brave because I was with you. I'm only ever brave when I'm with you." Said Serizawa

"No, you're very brave. You were brave enough to save Master Reigen and then to rejoin society. You could have gone back to your mom but you didn't." said Mob

"I only defected because of you. I had no idea what we were really doing, or maybe I just didn't want to know…and then you came along and you opened my eyes. You taught me how to be strong in the real way, Mob. If you hadn't taught me to be strong in the real way then I would have gone back to my mom instead of rejoining society. I would have just gone home…but I didn't…because of you. Because of what you taught me…and because…I guess that I wanted to be better. I guess that even before I fell in love with you I wanted to be better for you." Said Serizawa

"You're the protagonist of your own life, Serizawa. Don't do things for me, do things for yourself. You matter, Serizawa." said Mob. She just said what she felt. She wasn't trying to make him look at her with his eyes all soft. She hadn't meant to make him reach over and tilt her head up to his. She hadn't meant to make him kiss her so slowly and deeply that it was like he was drinking her in like she was a cool glass of milk on a hot day.

"I love you so much…" said Serizawa. She was an angel. She was an angel sent down to him. For what reason he did not know but when you were sent a gift you did not ask why it was sent. She was his and he was hers and she was just so….perfect. She was perfect. Perfection. A perfect angel made for him. Someone who listened to him. Someone who loved him. Someone who saw the best in him. Someone who saw him as a person.

Someone who would never cast him aside.

Someone who would never use him.

He loved her so much right then. He loved her so much all the time. He loved her and he needed her to know but words wouldn't do this feeling justice so he kissed her. He kissed her slowly and deeply and she made that noise, that mewing noise from deep in her throat, and her hand found his back and her other hand found his thigh and he hadn't set out to do this, or maybe he did, but he would still go with it because it made her happy.

It made him happy too. He mattered. She told him that he mattered and he wanted this with her. Even though thinking of her like this…in terms like this…it felt almost like he was insulting her. Almost like he was putting her in the same category as the girls he used to think about. Of course none of them had been real. Well the non-animated ones had been real but not in the sense that they were people that he could reach out and feel. It was different with someone in real life. It was different when it wasn't just himself all alone and a screen and his own half formed ideas of what it would feel like, smell like, sound like, and taste like. He wanted to think of her, sometimes, in those filthy sorts of terms.

Like now.

"I love you too." Said Mob. She enjoyed the feeling of him there. He was there and he was always there. For a moment she closed her eyes. She closed her eyes and imagined the smell of incense and aftershave. Bony fingers digging into her back. Light hair twisted between her fingers. A bony thigh under her hand. Of course she stopped herself. It was wrong and she knew it.

She thought about him, about Serizawa as he was, instead.

She focused on how soft his hair was. She focused on how strong his hand was on her back. How he tilted her head up to kiss her. How he had wanted to kiss her. How his hand was tracing lazy patterns on her thigh and how she did the same. She reached up higher than usual and earned herself a low groan and him pulling her close.

"You don't have to do that." Said Serizawa remembering himself. Remembering her. Remembering that he could not make her do something like that. Remembering that he could not think of her in filthy terms like that. He felt like he was…like it was something against her, her doing this. Even though she mostly had him do things for her. Even though he explored her but she never explored him in this way. Even though he wanted her to explore him in this way, preferably dressed as a maid, but he would never ask her to.

"This?" asked Mob. She pressed her palm against it. He moved up into her touch. A faint blush crossed her cheeks. She never did this to him. Not really. That was selfish, wasn't it? That he was always the one to make her feel good? Almost as selfish as pretending that he was Master Reigen whenever they had sex. But she was done being selfish.

"Yes!" said Serizawa. What was with him? She was barely doing anything. That was it, the fact that it was her doing it.

"Yes do this?" asked Mob with a smile. She ran her fingers over it through his pants. She liked it, the face he made. The way his aura looked. It was nice being able to make him feel good, too. Making him feel like he made her feel. He reached over and took her hand.

"You don't have to do that, Mob." Said Serizawa. Did she feel obligated to? Did he make her feel obligated? Did she even want to? Was it right that he wanted her to…to everything?

"But I want to." Said Mob

"You shouldn't…I mean I don't want to make you…" said Serizawa. He didn't want to make her but he did want her to…to do a lot of things. Things his mind wandered towards.

"You're not making me do anything, Serizawa, but if you don't like it then I'll stop." Said Mob. Of course she was doing this wrong. She was doing this wrong like she did everything else wrong and he was going to push her away and-

"If-If you want to then you…can…" said Serizawa. She wanted to do this and who was he to deny her? This was about her, not him. This was about her and how she wanted to do this. Not the fact that he wanted her to do that and a hell of a lot more.

"Ok…I want to. Tell me if I'm…good." Said Mob. She ran her hand up and down it through his pants. He laid down and she sat up. She liked this angle better. She could look down and see all the faces he made. She wasn't the best at reading faces and expressions but she could tell that he was happy. His aura certainly looked happy.

"You're good…so good…" said Serizawa closing his eyes tightly. How could something like this, just her hand outside of his pants, feel so amazing?

"But I'm barely doing anything." Said Mob. Her hand moved up and found his belt buckle. She played with it for a bit before undoing it with her powers. She watched him the entire time. She needed to know if this was ok. It must have been, he made no move to stop her and he actually looked like he was having fun. Master Reigen would never have let her do that.

"Mob…Mob…what do you want….?" Asked Serizawa as she undid his belt and zipper. He wished, then, that it was acceptable for adults to wear sweatpants out and about. It would have made this easier for her. Not that she had to do this. Not that he would ever make her do this. Not that he wanted her to reach down and make skin to skin contact with him. He just liked skin to skin contact, that was all.

"To make you feel good just like you make me feel good." Said Mob. She reached a tentative finger up and felt the bead of slickness at the top. She had never really looked at it before, not given it a proper look anyway. It looked weird, sort of. Lots of skin at the top, like it was a sock that wasn't pulled down low enough. She felt the whole top of it. Oh, the skin could move down. She moved her hand up and down a bit, this got her a gasp.

"Like that…like that…" said Serizawa. That was different than how he usually did it. Well it wasn't him doing it. That was her hand and she wanted to do this and she had that look that she got when she was really into whatever she was doing, total concentration, and it was somehow both adorable and attractive at the same time.

"I'm doing it right?" asked Mob experimenting with longer strokes. Up and down. He really seemed to like the up part. She did that a couple times before he reached over and covered her hand with his. She thought that he was going to tell her, once again, that she didn't need to do this for him. Instead he just sort of held her hand like that.

"You…you want to do this?" asked Serizawa watching her. She nodded.

"I already said that I did." Said Mob with a slight tone. She knew what she wanted, she was not little.

"Ok…can you…like this?" asked Serizawa. He held her hand in his and moved up and down a little faster with a little more pressure. Her hand in his. Her hand around him. How many times, since the beginning of this relationship, had he imagined this? He lost count. But now it was happening. She was there and she wanted this and there was just something so…perfect…about this.

"This?" asked Mob when he took his hand away. She thought that maybe she was going a little too fast but he just melted back into the bed and nodded.

"That…yes….that…" said Serizawa trying to stay still. He wanted to move into her touch. He wanted to sit up and kiss her hard, like she liked it. He wanted to pull her down on top of him and make her go all limp like he had the other night. When she was rocking and mewing and moaning and groaning and then it just sort of stopped with this perfect little gasp that she did and then she sort of just melted down into him. He wanted selfish things, too, but he knew not to ask those things of her. How many times had she pushed his head down gently? How many times had he been buried between her thighs? Her legs crossed across his shoulders? How would it feel if she were to…to return the favor?

But he couldn't ask that of her. He could never make her do something like that. She was his girlfriend not his…person who he had sex with. No, wait, she was his person who he had sex with…but not all the time! She wasn't there for sex, that was the best approximation of what he thought. She was not there just for sex. He wouldn't mind if she…no…he would mind if he were just there for sex. If she just wanted to have sex with him and not any of the other things that they did. The couple things. He could never just have sex with someone.

So he couldn't just reach over and give her head a tiny push down, a silent little way of telling her what he wanted. The same one that she gave him time and time again. Oh! This would have been so much easier if their positions were reversed. He knew how to make her feel good. He had explored her enough and done enough research to know what she liked and how to make her feel good. He knew how to make her feel good and he knew how to feel good while he made her feel good but her making him feel good was uncharted territory. It was like when he was a kid and his mom lost him in that big department store….only somehow scarier. If he asked her to then she could get mad at him. He could have been overstepping. But he had done it for her so many times. But she was his girlfriend. Yes, she was his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry, I can stop. I'm just…not good at this…" said Mob. He got all nonresponsive and his aura was being all weird. She was that terrible at this. No wonder Master Reigen didn't want this with her. She was terrible at it and awkward and now Serizawa would never let her do this again and she'd be so embarrassed that she had to go home but she couldn't because she didn't want to be there when Ritsu and Sho did whatever it was that they did so she would have to stay here in the awkwardness and she ruined everything and-

"No! I mean, you're so good. Too good. That was just me being…me. I don't know, I got lost in my own head again." Said Serizawa

"Oh. If you don't like this, or I'm making you upset, then I can stop. Do you want me to close the blinds? Get your umbrella?" asked Mob as she stopped moving. He shook his head.

"No, it's not like that. I just want…I want you do…but I shouldn't." said Serizawa

"Shouldn't what?" asked Mob. She didn't like it when he got all stuck on things that made him all stressed and anxious. She wished that she could just make it better but she had no idea how to go about doing that besides shutting out the outside world so he at least felt small and safe.

"Mob…if I were to ask you to do something…do you promise that you won't…run away?" asked Serizawa. He meant leave but it came out as run away. They could so easily go their separate ways, couldn't they? If she had gone her separate ways from Reigen then she could so easily go her separate ways from him.

"I won't run away but that doesn't mean that I'll do what you want me to, I need to know what it is first." Said Mob. She was not making promises without knowing what she agreed to. That was how she ended up spending the night on Tome's roof with her trying to contact aliens or the time she ended up hiding in that tree with all the ants because she agreed to help Mezato with her information gathering. It turns out that the Yakuza was not meeting in the park, it was just high schoolers pretending to be the Yakuza. Of course Serizawa wouldn't ask her to do anything like that. He hardly asked anything of her. Just really big things that she was not ready for at all.

She hoped to God that he wasn't getting ready to ask her one of the big questions. She wouldn't run away, she'd just…walk super quickly.

"Um….could you…would you…?" asked Serizawa before he gave her head a tiny push down. Her eyes widened. She looked up, looked down, then looked at him. For a moment he thought that she really was going to run away. To tell him that he was gross and that she was done with him and that she was going to find someone who didn't ask her to-

"I've never done this before….so it might not be good…but I don't mind." Said Mob. She tucked her hair back and leaned down. Huh. Tasted like skin. Not good but not bad. Oh, he took a shower that morning. It didn't taste like her even though they had been together yesterday. She focused on the top, mostly, because it was the easiest. She could feel it under her tongue. She thought it would be iced lolly shaped. The top of it was kind of like the top of a mushroom. Oh, that was the way it was under the skin. She poked the top with her tongue. He jumped back.

"Bad?" asked Mob looking up

"No just…different. I like it, I like this…." Said Serizawa. That had not been something he expected. Not bad but…weird…but he was not going to use the word weird in this situation.

"Oh, ok." Said Mob getting back to it. She leaned down and went back to what she was doing. She tried to take more of it in her mouth. That wasn't so hard. Then she tried more, maybe too much. She pulled back and coughed. Too much, way too much. She sat up, he sat up with her. He reached over to her and she shook her head.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Said Mob as she stopped coughing. She did not mess up, ok she did, but she would not quit. She wanted to make him feel as good as he made her feel and she needed to get back to it. He had seemed happy. He had been making those happy sorts of noises that he made and his aura looked happy too.

"You didn't have to-" said Serizawa

"I know that I don't have to, I want to. I know what I want to do, Serizawa." said Mob before tucking her hair back again and getting back to it. She didn't try to go that deep again, she focused on the top, and he seemed to like it. He leaned back again. He leaned back and his hand was on the back of her head but he wasn't pushing her head down like she sometimes did to him. He was playing with her hair and saying that he loved her a lot. He was moving up and down, now, like he did when they were all tangled up in another. She tried to follow the rhythm of it, she did, but she knew that it wasn't that good. He could follow her rhythm much better. He didn't seem to mind, though.

"Mob….oh God Mob…" said Serizawa. His wallet was digging into his thigh. His hand was buried in her hair, he was pulling on it a little. He could hear a distant sort of ringing. He didn't care. He couldn't believe that she was actually…that he actually knew what it felt like to...to have someone…to have someone he loved…

Mob jumped back.

Ick. Just ick.

It was like…tapioca…but warm.

And now she could never drink bubble tea with boba again.

"That…that was amazing…" said Serizawa as he caught his breath. He should have warned her. She had…no she hadn't…but still that was amazing. She was looking up at him. No emotion. Every emotion. Oh no. Did he mess up? Did she hate him? Did she-

"Does it always taste like boba?" asked Mob after a while. Was it meant to taste like boba? Or was boba meant to taste like…ick…

"Huh?" asked Serizawa as he felt around with his powers to the box of tissues he kept in the plastic bin under his bed for these reasons…well not this specific reason…but she didn't need to know the details of why he kept that much tissue under his bed.

"When you finish. Is it supposed to taste like boba? You know, the little balls at the bottom of bubble tea?" asked Mob

"It tastes like boba?" asked Serizawa as he cleaned them both up with his powers. He felt too tired to do it the right way. Too tired, too boneless. But she was there and he had to make her feel good and he wanted to pull her onto him but he couldn't because it would take about an hour or two for him to get back to being ready.

"Kind of…" said Mob

"Huh. I never knew that." Said Serizawa. Well now he could never drink bubble tea again. He felt like getting her a bubble tea, though, which was filthy and he should not have been thinking like that.

"What do I taste like?" asked Mob

"Kind of…oniony I think…sort of. You taste like yourself." Said Serizawa

"Oh. Is that…good?" asked Mob laying next to him. He kicked off his pants, no point at this point. He knew her, he knew what she would want, and he would be happy to give it to her when he could. He could give her a lot of things, though. Things she liked. Things that he knew she liked.

"Of course." Said Serizawa. Mob held eye contact with him. She was trying to get better at that. She took his hand in hers and brought it to her thigh.

"Is this good?" asked Mob holding eye contact with him. He didn't need to say it with words. She knew that it was good. He leaned down and kissed her. He didn't mind that he could sort of taste himself, not as long as it was her that he was kissing.

She kissed him back, tentatively. Did it bother him that he could taste himself? He didn't seem to mind. The hand on her thigh moved upwards. She let it. That was the point after all. This was the best part of being in a relationship. She could do this whenever she wanted. Well, whenever she wanted and they were together. When she was older she could do this whenever she wanted no matter when it was. All day every day.

Serizawa earned himself a gasp when he found her junction. He repeated the action and earned himself another gasp. She was happy. He was making her happy. He earned himself some more gasps and groans and quiet murmurings of his name. Her face was flushed. Her fingers were digging into his wrist but she wasn't asking him to stop, no, she was begging him to keep going. Of course he would. He'd do anything for her.

Mob rocked back as forth as he played with that nubby thing just like she liked it. She was still fully dressed. She wanted to get undressed but she hadn't had the chance. Her, fully dressed, in his bed, being touched like this…it was weird but alright. She liked being naked better. She could move around better, feel more, when she was naked. He seemed to like her in clothes while they did things like this. She didn't get it but right now she wasn't going to pop the bubble that was this moment because it felt so **good.**

"Lay back. If you want to, I mean." Said Serizawa. Mob nodded and laid down on her back. She reached down to undo the button of her skirt but he put his hand over hers. He wanted to do this while she was dressed? Thank God she packed for redundancy because she could not walk around smelling like when she got like this.

Serizawa took a moment just to take in the sight of her. Her hair was all around her like a crown, or a halo. Her chest was heaving against her T-Shirt. Her face was flushed a deep, beet red. Her skirt was hiked up, her thighs were parted, and her eyes were begging him to keep going. He wanted to save this picture forever and make a body pillow out of it. Not that he should have been thinking about her like that. But tie as hard not to. It was so hard not to but he knew that girls didn't like that at all and this was his girlfriend and he loved her so was it right to think of her like that? He was staring too long. She nudged him with her knee. Right.

Mob wanted to tell him to get on with it. She wouldn't say it like that, of course, because that would have been mean. She wanted to tell him to hurry it up because she had been close and now she was not close and she was kind of all slick and gross and the longer she sat it in the grosser she felt. He was just sort of looking at her, though. His eyes were all soft. He was looking at her like….he looked at her like that a lot. Like she was everything that he had ever wanted and he was afraid that she was going to run away. Well she was cheating and reading his aura. That was what his aura felt like. It felt like when they first met almost a whole year ago. When she took his energy from him and gave him right back. When she showed him what friendship was, when she promised to be his friend, he looked at her kind of like this.

Serizawa knew that he had to get on with it. She was nudging him now. Right. He just wished that he could look at her forever. That they could be in this perfect moment until one of them died. Probably him. He'd go first because he was older and then he'd leave her all alone and-stop thinking about this! Katsuya! Stop thinking like that and make your very much alive and very much impatient girlfriend happy!

He leaned down and kissed her inner thighs. She squirmed and pushed his head more inwards. He could feel her trying to get her underwear off with her powers. He just pushed them off to the side because he had maybe seen this a few times and had maybe saved something like this to one of the folders on his laptop that she could not know about and maybe this was too filthy but maybe she would like it because being eaten seemed to be her favorite thing and yes! She was enjoying this!

Mob decided that this was weird. Not bad weird. Different weird. She'd ask him later, after they finished, after she finished, what was up with him liking her being sort of dressed. This much clothing felt constricting but not terribly so. Yes, she could be like this for him. She heard his phone ring, it had been doing that for a while. Mob knew that the thing to do would be to pass him his phone and tell him someone was trying really hard to get a hold of him. The only problem with that was that if she did that then Mob would have to loosen her hold on him, and she didn't want to do that. She was getting tense. Every muscle in her body was tense and this was good. This was good because when she got all tense and her breathing got all fast and her nails dug into whatever part of him she could get a hold of she was close, so very close, and she needed this and she needed him and he was there and he was doing that thing she liked when he OH!

The entire room tried to upend itself. Serizawa wouldn't have minded if it did. He loved it when this happened, when she came apart like this, when he could make her come apart like this. She arched her back that time, and tugged his hair harder than she ever had before. He had made her feel like that. She came down to that sort of bonelessness, that languid sort of bonelessness that came after she came. She was floating a little, now. Her eyes were half opened. He sat up and just looked at her. This would be the other side of the body pillow, if it were ok to make a body pillow of her.

He wanted to lay down next to her but as he did his phone began to ring. Oh. It had been ringing for a while now…he checked who it was. If this was something dumb like a telemarketer or a scam…oh. Mom. Mom had called…a bunch of times. Without thinking of the state that he was in he answered. It might have been important. Mom never called more than once a week.

"Mom? What's wrong?" asked Serizawa. Mob hid her face in her hands and closed her thighs quickly. She knew that it was a dumb thing to do, his mother couldn't actually see the state she was in, but she just felt sort of…vulnerable…right then. Yes, that was the word for this, vulnerable.

"I'm fine. Really, I was just busy." Serizawa. Mob couldn't hear the other end of the conversation but she imagined his mom was mad. She knew her mom was always mad when she didn't pick up her phone.

"Something important….uh-huh….no I wasn't ignoring you…." Said Serizawa Mob pulled the blanket over her and laid down on her side. Serizawa reached over and put his hand over hers.

"She's still here….uh-huh….I love her…I just know…she loves me…uh-huh…mom!" said Serizawa. Mob watched him. He talked differently to his mom than she talked to her mom. His mom was different than hers, nicer, and let him get away with a lot more than she ever could.

"She'll be glad to hear that…uh-huh….I love you too….bye mom!" said Serizawa. He ended the call and laid down next to Mob. Wow! He knew mom would come around. She loved him and of course she would love the person he loved the most in the entire world.

"My mom likes you, she said so." Said Serizawa

"She called you just to tell you that?" asked Mob

"She just felt bad for the way she talked to me. She was worried that she had made me slip…but I didn't! She was just worried about me. She says that she loves you because I love you." Said Serizawa

"She doesn't mind how old I am?" asked Mob

"She does but she's trying not to. She just wants me to be happy and me being happy means that she accepts you and I being a couple." Said Serizawa

"My mom…she's not as nice as yours is." Said Mob

"I know, you said so. I can wait three years, that's not very long for me. Do you think…do you think that she'll like me, then?" asked Serizawa

"I…I think she might. I don't know. I've never brought a boy home before. Well Ritsu has but mom doesn't know about Sho. She kind of likes Sho and he's wrecked our house a few times. I think she'd like you better, probably, unless you wreck our kitchen trying to cook. I think she'll like you." Said Mob. Mom had never said anything about what kind of person she wanted Mob to be with. She heard mom and dad talking about how Ritsu was going to do great things and he had to be careful about girls trying to use him and how grateful mom was that he was busy being friends with Sho instead of finding a girlfriend. Mom and dad never said anything about her finding a boyfriend.

"I hope she does. I mean…I know you could…I mean if you ever wanted to you could find someone…" said Serizawa. He knew she could do so much better than him. She didn't think that she could easily find a man who didn't get anxious when he looked out the window, who could go out and be around people and have friends and make more money and be everything that she deserved.

"Serizawa, I want to be with you. I know what you're thinking, I know what you're thinking when your aura gets like that. I know that you're going to say that I can find someone else, I remember that we talked about this before. I'm with you because I want to be. If I didn't want to be here then I would go home." Said Mob. So annoying, sometimes. She couldn't have whoever she wanted. She wanted to be with him and she hated when he questioned it because then she started to question it and when she questioned it she thought about Master Reigen and she did not want to think about Master Reigen anymore because when she did her heart hurt and her stomach hurt and she both wanted to see him and never see him again and it was too much and-

Serizawa kissed her.

"I know, I'm sorry. I just…nothing. You're here, I'm here, you're right. That's what matters." Said Serizawa

"You kissed me." Said Mob after they broke apart. She smiled, her teeth biting her lower lip. That was nice, but in a different sort of way. More giggly, which was why she giggled.

"I know what you're thinking when your aura gets like that." Said Serizawa. He could tell by now, sometimes, when she needed love. She needed love right then because she was getting deep into her own thoughts, thoughts that he had no idea about but disliked because they caused her pain.

"Kiss me again?" asked Mob. She needed to kiss him because she was thinking about Master Reigen again and she was trying not. She needed to kiss him because she loved him and that was what you did when you were in love. She needed to kiss him because she loved him, right? She loved him.

"You don't have to ask." Said Serizawa before he kissed her. Kisses led to cuddles. Cuddles led to TV watching cuddles. TV watching cuddles led to Mob's favorite show. As the hours went on Serizawa came to a few discoveries about the love of his life.

He liked having her back caressed. Not sexually, just for the feeling of it.

She didn't just like certain episodes of EVA, she liked specific scenes which she liked to rewind to over and over again.

She couldn't get bored.

She liked to kick her socks off when she was under the covers for a while.

Her feet got cold even if she was under the covers.

She got hungry sooner than he did and she preferred snacks and cup noodle to actual food.

She liked to rest he head on his chest better than resting her head on a pillow.

Also she thought that calling him Katsuya was weird because it didn't fit.

Serizawa learned a few things about himself, too.

He felt weird calling her Shigeko. Mob fit a lot better than Shigeko.

He could get bored of EVA after a few hours of watching the same few episodes over and over again.

He was not really a fan of club shenanigans shows and he could tell her that without her getting upset.

He could voice what he wanted and she wouldn't get upset.

He preferred actual food to cup noodle and snacks but also liked seeing her happy so her happiness won out there.

He could never get too hot even though they were both under the covers and all cuddled up.

Somehow touching his bare feet to hers was more intimate than having sex.

And he liked having his back touched, too. Not sexually, it was just nice.

Mob liked this. She never had this with Master Reigen. They hadn't cuddled in so long…but Serizawa wanted to cuddle her. In his arms, in his bed, under his covers, with the best animated shows that Japan had to offer playing on TV she felt so safe and warm and loved and could even sort of forget about Master Reigen.

Until he texted her. He texted while Serizawa was making them dinner. Cup noodle, candy, and popcorn. Real food was good and all but she didn't feel like going outside or even having an actual meal. She just felt like hanging out and she had been having a nice time. Then Master Reigen texted her.

And she texted back.

And they texted through dinner. On and off for the rest of the night. She didn't camp by her phone or anything, that would have been mean. She just checked it so often and replied to him. He was having a boring sort of night, mostly watching TV. She was mostly watching TV, but not bored. He had cup noodle for dinner, curry flavor. She had seafood flavor. He didn't know what kind of curry, she didn't know what kind of seafood. He thought it was funny and sent her a happy face emoji. She sent one back.

That wasn't wrong, right? She was just texting Master Reigen, that was all. It wasn't like he felt the same way. It wasn't like she still felt that way. It wasn't like she had spent the next time she and Serizawa had sex thinking about what it would have been like to be with Master Reigen like that.

It just crossed her mind, that was all.

She just wondered what it would be liked to be with him. Would he want her to still be dressed? Would he tell her he loved her? How would it feel? Thinner? Because he was thinner? Or thicker? How much variation was there between people? Would it be better with him? Would it be worse? What would it….what would it be like? What was he like, like this?

Then, afterwards, she wondered more things. She wondered what it would be like afterwards with Master Reigen. Would he want to cuddle her? Would he let her rest her head on his chest? Would he be warm? Would he sit still or fidget? Would he tell her that she was perfect? That he wanted to spend his entire life with her? Would he have a bed big enough for the both of them? Would he sleep on the side towards the wall or on the end?

Mob had the end spot.

Serizawa had the wall spot.

They just sort of ended up this way. She had just sort of ended up with him. She was with him and…and she was happy.

This was great and she was happy. She was happy to be his girlfriend and she was happy to be there and there was nowhere else in the world that she wanted to be. Not Master Reigen's bed and not her own bed. This bed. This bed where she was expected to sleep with him holding her so close that she could barely even breathe. This bed which was much higher off the ground than she was used to. This bed which had a gross sort of wet spot in the middle that she was trying not to lay on.

She wanted to be here. She couldn't go home, she would have just been intruding upon Ritsu and Sho. She could go home, actually, but she had no urge to bother Ritsu and Sho because she knew how mortified she'd be if her brother or Sho knew even a millionth of what she was getting up to with Serizawa. She could go home but she didn't want to. This was where she wanted to be.

This was where she wanted to be. Here. Not at her own house and not with Master Reigen. Master Reigen who rejected her but still wanted to…to text her. To hang out with her. To still have what they used to. He wanted that back. That was why he asked her to come and hang out with him again. She would. She wanted to and she would. Serizawa stirred beside her. It wouldn't be…anything…just hanging out. Just the two of them hanging out like they had before.

But then why had he just…asked? The way he had?

She was thinking too much into this. She was thinking too much into everything. Serizawa was rubbing off on her. Serizawa thought about a lot of things. He thought about them and everything he wanted. Everything that could happen. Everything that he wanted with her, from her. Mob just wanted to have fun and be in love.

So that was what she would do. She'd have fun and be in love.


	13. Heart to Heart

Mob and Ritsu stood perfectly still as their mother paced the house. She was looking for anything that could be evidence of their wrongdoing. Ritsu was glad that their mom cared what they did and what happened to him, Sho had a mom who didn't really care and Ritsu could tell that it hurt him even though he never let on. Parents were supposed to care. Mob wished that her mom was more like Serizawa's, his mom let him do whatever he wanted, even when he was her age. Parents were supposed to understand that you weren't a kid anymore and give you space.

"Did either of you go outside at all this weekend?" asked their mom when her inspection of the house came up with nothing except the normal mess of leaving two teenagers alone by themselves.

"No mom." They both said at once. She looked between each of them.

"Ritsu, did your sister go anywhere this weekend?" asked their mom. Ritsu had no trouble lying.

"No, mom, sister stayed here the entire time." Said Ritsu. Mob felt bad about making her little brother lie but she did not want to get in trouble and not be allowed to see Serizawa anymore.

"Hmm…." Said their mother. Ritsu tensed. Sometimes moms had a sixth sense for when you did something wrong.

"Shigeko, did your brother have any friends over while your father and I were out?" asked their mother. Mob shook her head. Ritsu held his breath.

"No mom, Ritsu didn't have any friends over." Said Mob not lying at all. Boyfriends were not friends so she wasn't telling a lie. Hana noticed the breath that her son had been holding. He was hiding something. Shigeko…she couldn't lie. Even as a child she could never tell a lie. But then again she was not a child anymore.

Their mother hugged each of them. Hana noticed a few things that were slightly off. Ritsu smelled like he had just gotten out of the shower but he never showered this late on a Sunday. Shigeko smelled like…that was not her soap. Or shampoo. That was men's soap, which she occasionally used when she ran out of hers…but there was plenty of Shigeko's soap and shampoo and everything in the bathroom. Hana had just gone to Costco.

Suspicious.

Ritsu couldn't believe that they had gotten away with it. How did mom not notice the mess? The crumbs in every room? The fact that the couch pillows that she so loving arranged each and every day were a total mess? The fact that one of the pictures on the wall had been moved to cover up a dent in the wall because Sho had decided that he could totally do a flip without his powers. He could, sort of. Mom didn't notice any of these things.

Mom didn't notice him.

He felt different. He felt…he didn't know how he felt but he knew that he felt different. Older, maybe. More…aware of himself. Of course after all of that it was difficult not to end up becoming more aware of himself.

Maybe he and Sho shouldn't have jumped straight from making out to…everything. Maybe that he been too much at once.

"Ritsu? Do you need the mirror?" asked Mob. It was nighttime now. They were brushing their teeth. Well, Mob was brushing her teeth. Ritsu was just sort of looking at himself in the mirror. She stopped brushing and looked at herself. She looked the same. Thank God she healed as fast as she did.

"Yes, no, I just…" said Ritsu. He wanted to talk to someone but he had nobody to talk to. If he told his parents that would open up a whole conversation, or yelling match, that he did not want to have. Shigeko obviously wouldn't be much help….right? She had been somewhere these past few days…with someone…but this was his sister!

"You look fine, Ritsu." Said Mob. Maybe he was worried about how he looked. Maybe he felt the same way she did after she…not that she wanted to think about her brother like that. There were just a lot of feelings that came after you did all of that for the first time.

"I look normal?" asked Ritsu

"Yes. The same as you always do." Said Mob

"But….nothing." said Ritsu. He brushed his teeth and went to bed. He looked normal but he didn't feel normal. He felt good and bad and scared and excited and vulnerable and a whole set of other feelings that he didn't care to name.

Mob knew how he felt. A lot of people thought that she was unfeeling, that just because she wasn't expressive it meant that she had no feelings at all. That wasn't true. She had feelings. She had feelings and she knew that other people had feelings. She knew that her feelings were not the feelings that everyone else had but she also knew that they could feel similar.

And it was fifty flavors of weird to think of her little brother as having these same feelings that she did.

He was Ritsu. He was a baby. He was so little and he needed to go back to watching One Piece and Dragon Ball and stepping on his trucks to use them as skates and sledding down the stairs in a cardboard box and picking up slugs in the garden even though it was super gross to do so. But he wasn't little now. He was almost her age and he was going off and doing all the same things that she did even though he still felt so young and-ugh!

Not that it was any of Mob's business.

Sho and Ritsu loved each other very much, Sho had said so a thousand times. Ritsu was more private than Sho. He mostly kept things to himself, especially about all of that. They had that in common. Of course Mob had to be private. She knew her little brother. Ritsu could be a little overprotective. She did not want him to come to some conclusion like she didn't want to be with Serizawa or something. She didn't want him to treat Serizawa like he had treated Master Reigen all these years.

She wanted to tell someone but she couldn't. She wanted to tell someone that she was an adult and that she had found another adult and that she was totally ready to do all the things that adults did, not only sex.

She wanted to tell someone that she was am adult but she was not ready to do all the things that adults did. She didn't want to get married and have a baby. She didn't want to think about the far future. She wanted to have fun and be in love but not have to worry about all the things that her parents worried about. She didn't want to have to worry about having a household or a baby or anything like that.

But Serizawa wanted that future with her. He wanted it so badly even though he said that he knew that he shouldn't think about that. It was because he was so much older. People her age didn't think about those kinds of things but people his age did. Proper adults did. Well she could be a proper adult!

No she couldn't.

Yes she could.

She was an adult.

She was only fifteen.

That didn't mean anything!

That meant that she was in middle school.

That didn't mean anything!

That meant that she was over half his age and wanted the same things that people her age wanted.

But that didn't mean that she had to be so young and immature. Master Reigen was not right.

Master Reigen was usually right.

He was not right about this. He was not right about her being too young for all of this. She knew herself and she knew exactly what she wanted and what she wanted to be and therefore she wanted to be Serizawa's girlfriend and to spend…the rest of her life…with him…

Mob totally wanted that, she did, she really did. She wanted Serizawa to smother her for the rest of her life.

She'd wake up next to him each morning, his arms around her. His legs all tangled up in hers. His fingers in her hair getting it all knotted up. Him pressing himself against her and telling her that he loved her. Her unable to move for a moment because there's just so **much** of him holding onto her and she can't get out easily and he doesn't want her to get out because he loves her and-

And she loved him back so she wouldn't mind.

She loved him back and she should have been happy. Wasn't this what she had wanted? Well she had wanted it from Master Reigen but that was so obviously not happening at all ever so she should take what she could get. Not that she didn't love Serizawa. He was nice to her, he never lied, and he loved her more than anyone else in the entire world.

So therefore she felt the same.

Her door opened a crack.

"Sister? Are you awake?" asked Ritsu. He couldn't sleep. He just couldn't. Sho was back at his mom's house and he would be for a while. Ritsu had never known that hamsters needed that much…everything. Or maybe Sho was just going overboard about this like he went overboard with everything.

And he did tend to go overboard. Why did they even need ten boxes of….? Well at least Sho had been prepared. Not that Ritsu hadn't bene prepared. Not that Ritsu had thought that maybe if he wasn't prepared then they wouldn't. Not that Ritsu hadn't wanted to. Of course he did. He spent at least forty percent of his time thinking about him and Sho like that…

But it was different when it was real.

"I'm awake. I would have been even if I was asleep, with you asking and all." Said Mob. That was a strange question. If you were asleep then how were you supposed to answer? And if you were asleep you would probably end up being woken up by the question anyway.

"Yeah…right. Can I…can I talk to you?" asked Ritsu because he needed to talk to someone and the list of people that he could talk to about this began and ended with his sister. She was a good listener. She never judged him. She may have even known how it felt…not that he wanted to know if his sister knew…but maybe she could tell him if it was normal to feel like this.

"You can always talk to me, Ritsu." Said Mob. She sat up on her futon. The room was dark. She could barely see her little brother, just his aura. Ritsu crossed the room and sat down on the other side of her futon. They just sat there for a moment.

"Sister…can I…" said Ritsu. He just needed to know if he was normal. If this was normal. If it was normal to feel all weird. If it was normal to want to both be with Sho and to want to be far away from him. If it was normal to feel like he was stuck and smothered because Sho just did not want to give him any space and he was always try to take care of Ritsu like he was a **hamster** or something!

"What? What's wrong?" asked Mob. Something was bothering her little brother. She needed to protect him from whatever it was. She needed to keep him safe. She needed to fix whatever it was that bothered him because she was his big sister and she loved him and it was her job to keep him safe.

"It's just Sho…" said Ritsu. It had been a dumb idea to try and talk to his sister. He should have just kept the way he felt to himself.

"What about Sho?" asked Mob. Ritsu could see the change in her aura. Protective. Mob liked Sho but if he had done anything to hurt Ritsu Mob would fight him until he said sorry and made up for whatever it was that happened.

"He…I just…this is dumb. I shouldn't have tried to talk to you about this." Said Ritsu. Those days when they could talk about anything and everything were over. They were not children anymore. They were practically adults and adults kept their problems to themselves.

"Ritsu you can tell me anything. I'm your sister, I'm here for you." Said Mob

"I know you are, I know, but I just need someone who can…who can understand." Said Ritsu

"That you feel weird?" asked Mob

"Sister?" asked Ritsu

"That right now you feel really weird. You feel different but you look the same. That you kind of want to be alone but you also don't." said Mob

"That's…that's exactly how I feel. How did you…?" asked Ritsu

"Because I felt like that, too. That's how I felt but it'll pass." Said Mob

"You…felt….?" Asked Ritsu

"Sorry! I said too much!" said Mob. She was so awkward sometimes. She just wanted to tell someone. She was tired of keeping this a secret.

"Wait, did you…?" asked Ritsu. No. Nope. His sister was not allowed to do that. The thought of some guy taking advantage of his sister like that made him want to both throw up and start breaking things. But he needed to stay in control. He needed to find out who it was so that he could kick the guy's ass for daring to hurt his sister like that.

"Ritsu, if I tell you the truth do you promise not to freak out?" asked Mob

"I won't freak out….unless-" said Ritsu

"It's not Master Reigen, ok? I already told you that he doesn't feel that way about me." Said Mob

"Then who else? I mean…you don't know that many guys." Said Ritsu

"I know a lot of guys." Said Mob defensively. There was nothing wrong with her. Ritsu was talking like she was boy-proof or something. She was loveable. She was someone who was capable of finding a person who loved her and she loved in return.

"You do…." Said Ritsu. She knew a lot of guys and he hadn't been there to protect her and then some guy had used her and now she felt just the same way that he did and-

"Ritsu, you promised me that you wouldn't freak out. You said so." Said Mob

"I am not freaking out!" said Ritsu a little more loudly than he had meant to. For a moment he thought that their mother was going to kick the door opened and punished them both for what they had done.

"Yes you are, I can see your aura." Said Mob

"Fine, ok! I'm a little freaked out that some guy tricked you-" said Ritsu

"Nobody tricked me, Ritsu. I'm not dumb. Nobody tricked me. I wanted to." Said Mob

"That's what…fine. Nobody tricked you." Said Ritsu not believing her for one minute. He was supposed to protect her and now some guy had told her he loved her and had slept with her and now she could be sick or have a baby and it was all his fault for not being there to stop her because he was too busy being with Sho and-

"Nobody did. I love him and he loves me. Besides, it was my idea anyway." Said Mob

"Your idea?" asked Ritsu

"Yes, my idea. I'm not dumb, Ritsu, nobody tricked me. I'm not a kid, either." Said Mob

"Sister, that's what guys do…they trick you into thinking-" said Ritsu

"Serizawa didn't trick me!" said Mob a little too loudly. The tiny her and the not so tiny EVA it piloted fell to the floor. Mob got up quickly to make sure that it was ok. Ritsu knew what fell. That plastic model. He had seen it. He had felt it. The energy didn't feel a thing like her.

"Did you day Hanazawa?" asked Ritsu. That could have been what she said. Hanazawa was a nice guy, kind of…himself…but nice.

"No…I said Serizawa. I'm Serizawa's girlfriend." Said Mob. She was standing, Ritsu was sitting. She was taller than him, then, even though she hadn't been taller than him in years. She knew that Ritsu was going to freak out. She knew that Ritsu was going to probably have one of his freak outs and then mom and dad were going to wake up and-

"I'll kill him." said Ritsu. He felt like he was going to explode. He knew Serizawa, sort of. He had been there when they took down Claw. He took care of Sho sometimes, not that Sho would call that taking care of him. He worked with Reigen and Shigeko. He stuttered a lot and called sister Master Kageyama. He looked at her a lot, when he thought nobody was looking. He looked at her like she was the answer to all of his hopes and dreams.

He had been looking at her like that since the day he met her.

Ritsu felt something holding him down.

"Ritsu, no. Ritsu, little brother, I won't let you." Said Mob. She would not let Ritsu fight Serizawa. He would not win, first of all. Second of all fighting was dumb, super dumb. He would just end up getting himself hurt.

"I have to. He…" said Ritsu

"Ritsu, he loves me. He loves me more than anything else in the world. He loves me and…and I love him. He treats me like….nobody ever treated me like he does. He's always there for me and he cares about me and…and it's all my fault." Said Mob. She was still pinning him down with her aura. She sat down next to him. He was glaring at her. She had known her brother for as long as she could remember. She knew that face.

"He's old. He's older than Reigen. What is he? Forty? Fifty?" asked Ritsu

"Thirty one. He's thirty one and that doesn't matter." Said Mob

"Yes it does! Mom and dad are going to-" said Ritsu

"Don't even think about telling mom and dad." Said Mob in a low, dangerous sort of voice. She had only spoken like this a few times in her entire life. She felt the same now as she did at those times. Cornered. Afraid.

"I can't keep something like this a secret. Guys his age don't date people our age." Said Ritsu

"Says you." Said Mob

"Says the law." Said Ritsu

"No it doesn't. I checked, the age of consent here is fourteen." Said Mob

"Why…why did you check….?" Asked Ritsu

"Because there was….someone else I wanted to confess to. Then I did confess to him and he said no and I just felt so-so-so! I felt awful and then Serizawa was there and he was so nice to me and he didn't even have to be! He was so nice and we spent time together and I felt so happy when he was nice to me and I just….I wanted to keep on feeling good. Then I wanted…I guess I wanted to know that somebody could love me so I asked him to kiss me and kissing him felt so good so I asked him to…everything else…and it felt so weird and right afterwards he told me that he loved me and then it felt even weirder!" said Mob. It all came out like word vomit. She had to tell someone, anyone, and Ritsu was someone.

"Sister…." Said Ritsu. That was not at all what he was picturing in his mind. Of course nobody could make his sister do anything that she didn't want to do. He told himself this so that he didn't feel bad about dropping the ball so badly.

"At first it was so weird, him loving me. It felt so weird but then it kind of felt…nice. It feels nice that someone loves me. He cares so much about me, Ritsu, and I care…I care about him. So please, don't tell mom and dad and don't try to kill him. Please don't ruin this for me. Please…I won't tell if you won't tell. Ok? I won't tell if you won't tell." Said Mob

"Fine. I won't tell if you won't tell. But tell me if he ever does anything to hurt you." Said Ritsu. He couldn't do it. He couldn't take away his sister's happiness. He couldn't make her cry or anything like that.

"He won't but if he ever does I will. I…I love him and I think that when I grow up I'm going to marry him." said Mob. He wanted that from her and she wasn't going to break his heart so of course they would end up married to each other.

"What?" asked Ritsu. She loved the guy that much? If he was lying to her then Ritsu would literally kill him. There would be no other option. Murder.

"That's what you do when you love someone." Said Mob simply. To Ritsu she was stating her intentions, not what she thought had to happen. If those were her intentions, if that was what she truly wanted…then he would not ruin it for her. Plus, well, she wouldn't tell if he wouldn't tell.

Mutually assured destruction.

"I know…I didn't know you wanted to…." Said Ritsu. Well she was older, and a girl. Girls thought about that stuff a lot. He knew that he loved Sho but the thought of the two of them being all married with kids and a house like his parents were….he didn't know what he would do if Sho asked him for that. Even though it seemed like that was what he wanted.

"I do. Of course I do. Don't you?" asked Mob. Maybe it was different because they were both boys and they couldn't get married. Well they could have a big party and stuff but they couldn't be married, which wasn't fair at all. They couldn't have a baby together, either, unless they adopted one. So maybe it was different when it was two boys.

"I…I don't know! I mean Sho…I'm not a hamster! But he treats me like a hamster! It's like….it's like we did this big thing together and now he's…he's treating me like-" said Ritsu

"Like you're made of glass?" asked Mob

"Yes! He kept on trying to feed me and brush my hair for me and he even tried to give me a bath! He said that he loved me and when you love something you take care of it and you do whatever you can to keep it alive. It. He kept saying it, like I was his hamster or something. I mean, I know that he loves me and that I love him-" said Ritsu

"But you're still a person. You're a person and you can do things for yourself and you don't need him to treat you like a baby." Said Mob

"You're right…you get it. I just…I love him and he loves me but now that we did…everything…it feels like I want to be with him and I want to be far away from him. I want him to love me and I want to love him but it's like there's so…much…now…." Said Ritsu

"It'll get better. Once you spend more time together it'll get better. You'll freak out less. Did you try telling him that you feel smothered? That you feel like he teats you like a hamster?" asked Mob

"I…I can't. I mean…he loves me. He loves me and I love him and I don't want him to…" said Ritsu

"If he loves you then he won't go anywhere. When you love someone you do whatever you can to make them happy but they also do whatever they can to make you happy. Serizawa smothers me sometimes, too, but I told him and now we're working on it. I was too…I'm wanting the same things that he wants now, too. So now we're meeting more in the middle. I think that you and Sho should talk to each other. It's important to talk about things when you're in a relationship." Said Mob

"It sounds so simple when you say it." Said Ritsu

"I think that it is, sort of. I don't know. I just know what worked for me and Serizawa." said Mob

"Please stop saying his name." said Ritsu

"Why?" asked Mob

"Because that means that I have to think about him. He's…I get that you love him but this is too weird for me." Said Ritsu

"But you won't tell?" asked Mob

"No. I won't tell if you won't tell." Said Ritsu. He meant it. It didn't matter how he felt, she had made herself totally clear.

Mutually assured destruction.


	14. Truth and Misunderstandings

Serizawa couldn't stop thinking. He was the first one in, as was becoming the usual. He was at his desk, phone in hand. He looked down at his lock screen, his girlfriend asleep. She looked so perfect there, like a dead angel. Wait, no, that sounded terrible. Like an angel who was sleeping so stilly that she could have been mistaken for being dead but was very much alive. She was alive and she was there and she was his.

He was so lucky.

He was so lucky to have her in his life. He didn't know how he had been so long without her and he didn't know how he could be without her in the future. But he wouldn't be. He wanted to be with her and she wanted to be with him. He couldn't imagine anyone who wouldn't want to be with her. Well there was one person.

And here he came.

"Sorry, sorry! I know I'm late." Said Reigen as he came through the door.

"It's ok, Reigen. I made the tea already." Said Serizawa. He got up and poured Reigen a cup. Reigen sat down and stared at it.

"Wonderful…" said Reigen. Well, the water was green. It could, possibly, be classified as tea. Serizawa was looking at him. Right. He took a sip. Hey…not bad. Familiar.

"Mob showed you how to make this." Said Reigen stating a fact. This tasted like Mob's work. Not too weak, not too strong. Just right, like her.

"Yes. She walked me through it a few times." Said Serizawa. They had done that on Sunday. It took almost an entire box of green tea but she had taught him.

"Tell her I said thanks." Said Reigen. Serizawa nodded but still stayed in place. Reigen had rejected Mob. Why? It had been driving him crazy since Mob first told him. Mob was perfect, pretty and understanding and sweet, but Reigen didn't want her. Why?

"So…." Said Reigen leaning back. He knew that look. Serizawa had something to say. For a moment Reigen wonders if there's trouble in paradise. Maybe Serizawa's girlfriend decided that she didn't want domestic bliss with a guy that she had just met. Reigen, the bad part of him that he likes to ignore, is weirdly happy about that. The jealous part of him wants everyone in the world to be just as miserable as he is. He tells that part of himself to shut up. Serizawa is a good friend. He's been through a lot and needs a supportive friend.

"So…" said Serizawa. He wanted to ask Reigen why. Why say not to Mob? Why did he not love her back? Did he ever have feelings for her? Did she…did Mob still have feelings for Reigen? No. Don't think like that. She's yours, not literally, and she loves you.

"Have you been getting any weird texts lately?" asked Reigen. He had a few ex-Claw member's numbers and apparently they spread his number around. Weird questions from people he didn't even know. Really weird ones.

"No, not really. Just a few texts from some people wondering about the organization, that's all. I told them that there still isn't any Claw and there never will be again." Said Serizawa. Just a few people asking him if defeating the president made you the new president, if there even was an organization to come back to, and then Shimazaki had gone as asked him again…which he had still not answered. Which he had no plans to answer. Which was none of his business.

"That's not strange to you?" asked Reigen

"No, not really. People just saw me and her together and they think that she's the new president. It's an understandable mistake." Said Serizawa. That wasn't such a crazy assumption to make. He had followed Suzuki around for years and she had defeated Suzuki so…

"Oh. You mean you and Mob. Yeah, you do hang out a lot…" said Reigen. He wasn't jealous. This was Serizawa. He was harmless and taken and most definitely not the type to cheat on his girlfriend. Mob was just…was she trying to make him jealous? Well it had worked. He asked her on a legitimate, romantic, date.

Which was not at all going to be a mistake.

"We do. She had fun, I think. She sure does love to walk, though. I need to exercise more, I have no endurance. She can walk for kilometers, literal kilometers, and not get tired." Said Serizawa maybe a little…he had no reason to be jealous. Mob had chosen him, not Reigen.

"Yeah, Mob's amazing….anyway! You never told me how your weekend went. So, how'd it go?" said Reigen getting off the subject of Mob. He didn't want to get too into this. He knew that he had a tone and that was why Serizawa had a tone and this could easily turn into something that Reigen didn't want it to turn into. Serizawa couldn't know how he felt about Mob. Nobody that he knew socially could know that he was dating a fifteen year old girl.

"It went great! We spent so much time together and we didn't get bored of each other once even though so many books said that it's normal for couples to get bored of each other when spending long periods of time together. We went out and took long walks and we even ran into some of my old…friends I guess…from Claw. Well, mostly Minegishi. He liked her, I think, as much as he can like someone. Hatori spied on us a little but that's just the way he is, though I wish we could have hung out. He's actually pretty nice..." Said Serizawa sitting on the couch. He wanted to ask but he couldn't. He just…he needed to accept that she loved him and not Reigen and that Reigen's reasons for rejecting Mob did not matter.

"She knows? Everything?" asked Reigen incredulously. She knew and she didn't go running in the other direction? If Reigen had been a woman he would not have wanted to be with a guy who had tried to take over the world and all that came with it. He didn't know the full extent of Serizawa's past and he didn't want to ask.

"…not everything, I didn't tell her everything." Said Serizawa. He would never tell Mob about all the people he left broken and bloody at the president's feet. Mob didn't need to know about that. She didn't need to know things like that because he was not that man anymore.

"Do you plan to? Not that I know what there even is to tell. I mean, you don't tell and I'm not going to ask. It's none of my business." Said Reigen with his hands up. He was curious about what, exactly, Serizawa had been doing for three years. He knew that for a shut in Serizawa had been very well traveled, even if all that travel had been spent glued to the side of a madman. He knew that said madman had used Serizawa as a bodyguard and that entitled, well, guarding the man's body. He also knew that said job involved hurting people. With his powers. Powers that were near Mob level.

Not that Reigen was ever going to come out and ask Serizawa about that obviously painful time in his life.

"I…I don't plan on it. I know that it's bad to keep secrets but if I tell her about everything that I did she'll…she might not love me anymore. She's…I think that she's perfect but I know that everyone has their limits. Besides, I try not to think about it. I'm putting the past behind me and working to rejoin society. I'm even thinking of going back to school." Said Serizawa

"School? Like university?" asked Reigen. Well it was good that Serizawa was trying to better himself….even if it meant that he would eventually leave him…like Mob would.

"Maybe, but I didn't even go to high school. Or middle school. So I guess I should finish elementary school before everything." Said Serizawa. There were plenty of places to get equivalency certificates, mom had been very helpful, and he just had to…get to it. Even though he could so easily mess up. Even though it would be a lot of new people at once in a new place and he hadn't even been to school in almost twenty years and even back then he hadn't been good at it and he could lose control of his powers and-

No. She believed in him. He would do this for her. He would become the kind of man that she deserved.

"Yeah, that's a great place to start! I mean, that's our only real academic requirement, finishing elementary school. Wait, how old was Mob when she started…?" asked Reigen rhetorically. Theatrically. He had been thinking crazy thoughts. Of course Serizawa wasn't going to leave him. He was just tired of being an elementary school dropout. Understandable.

"She was eleven, she said." Said Serizawa immediately. Mob had told him that story. Well he had seen it in her memories first but she still told him. She told him about all of her good memories. That had been nice. Him and her cuddled up in what could only be described as bliss. The two of them just going over happy times in their lives. Of course most of his had to do with her.

"Right! So since you…uh…took a break from the world when you were twelve you're already good on that." Said Reigen

"It's not about competing with her, I just want to make myself into a better person." Said Serizawa. As if he could ever compete with her. They were the same in a lot of ways. They both felt like they had this terrible thing inside of them that could come out at any time and hurt the people they loved. She just had better acceptance over it. She never tried to hide from it, to hide herself away in the hopes that she could protect the world from herself. She accepted that part of herself, even personified it, and she got by a hell of a lot better than he did.

"You shouldn't feel inadequate. You're already a great guy and you've done so much in not even a year. I remember when you first came here, you were stuttering so much I could barely understand you. Now look at you. Steady job, great conversation skills, and a woman who loves you." Said Reigen. In less than a year Serizawa had improved in leaps and bounds while he was drinking himself to sleep over a fifteen year old girl.

"I know that I'm doing better but I just…I want to be someone that…I want to be better for her. I want to be someone that she can be with. I want to be someone who can give her all the things in life that she deserves." Said Serizawa. For a moment Reigen thought that he was talking about Mob. For a moment Reigen wanted to jump up and…but he was not going to take a whack at Serizawa. No. Serizawa had been talking about his girlfriend. The pronoun game could be really annoying sometimes.

"Well that's all well and good but don't go stressing yourself out. Manageable steps. That's the key to everything, manageable steps." Said Reigen

"You're right." Said Serizawa. Reigen really was wise. Serizawa never broke things down into manageable steps, he knew this about himself. He needed to look at this more like a game. He needed to fulfil one mission objective at a time instead of worry about every single mission that he needed to fulfil in the entire game.

"Besides, if she won't take you as you are then she doesn't deserve you." Said Reigen with a wave of his hand. People shouldn't feel the need to change to fit someone else's idea of who they should be. That was what he loved about Mob. She never complained about Reigen. Not about the incessant smoking like so many other women had. Not about the fact that only about forty percent of what he ate actually ended up in his mouth, as he had been told in the past. Not about that fact that he had been living hand to mouth since…forever. Mob didn't care. She just loved him. She just loved him for who he was and she wouldn't have him any other way.

She was perfect.

"Is that why you rejected her?" asked Serizawa just blurting it out. He just needed to know. He needed to know why he would throw away happiness with both hands. He could have had her. He could have had Mob but he didn't want her. He could have woken up with her in his arms but he didn't want her. He could have held her close but he didn't want to. He could have spent his entire life with her but he didn't want to.

Why?

"Huh?" asked Reigen

"Mob. She told me that…that she confessed to you and you rejected her." said Serizawa. He had no idea how one went about asking someone why they didn't want to date the girl that they were currently dating so he just came out and asked.

"Right. That…"said Reigen. Serizawa could take the gold for Japan in the pronoun game, that was for sure.

"Yes. I was just wondering…not that it's any of my business! I just…I was just wondering." Said Serizawa running a hand through his hair. Getting longer. Mob liked it that way.

"It's…complicated." Said Reigen mirroring Serizawa. His hair was getting longer. He'd have to cut it. Mob said, once, that he looked funny with longer hair.

"Oh. I'm sorry I asked! I just…she told me and I was curious. That's all." Said Serizawa

"It's ok. Just…it was the age thing." Said Reigen. He had to tell Mob to wait. That didn't mean that he rejected her. Wait…did Mob see it that way? She knew how he felt and she agreed that it would be better to wait. Right? She had said…what exactly had she said?

"Oh. The age gap. That makes sense." Said Serizawa. He didn't mind how young she was but he knew that other people would. The sheer amount of glares and judgmental looks he had gotten last weekend when he and Mob had been out and about proved it. Serizawa didn't get it. It was either disbelief that he could have someone as wonderful as her or, as Minegishi had said, disbelief that he was with someone as young as her. Just because he didn't mind the age gap didn't mean that every else would see it the same way.

"Yeah, she's only fifteen and I'm twenty nine. It would never work out and I wouldn't want to ruin what she and I have right now." Said Reigen omitting the fact that he was now sort of dating her in secret. Serizawa was an accepting guy but Reigen didn't want to push the limits on that one.

"That makes sense." Said Serizawa again. It did, it made total sense. It made the most sense out of anything else in the entire world. He had no feelings for Mob what so ever and Serizawa had no reason to hold onto all of this jealousy that had been growing like that weird skin that grew on your feet when you didn't change your socks for a few weeks.

"I mean, I would never be with someone her ago. It's not like I have trouble finding women my own age or anything like that. I just don't want a relationship right now, that's all." Said Reigen

"That also makes sense." Said Serizawa

"Relationships are hard and messy and always end in someone getting their heartbroken. Who needs that? Am I right?" said Reigen with a laugh that he did not feel at all.

"They do…?" asked Serizawa. The teacup on Reigen's desk began to crack.

"Not that I mean it's a one hundred percent guarantee or anything like that! I mean you and your girlfriend could totally make it! I mean if she knows your backstory and some of what happened and she still hasn't run for the hills then I say you've got a great girlfriend there. Yeah, you'll do just fine. Get married, have a house in the country, end up with forty sons and forty daughters, all of that!" said Reigen backtracking. Right. Serizawa wasn't him and he had someone in his life who he could actually and openly be with without fear of society's judgements.

"….that's a lot of children…..and she's too young to have any of that with me anyway." Said Serizawa. He had a weird flash of himself surrounded by screaming esper babies. Nope. Too many. Even one would be terrifying. Well Mob would know what to do, women knew more about those sorts of things. He could help, though, and he would help. Not that she was pregnant or anything. Not that she could get pregnant or anything. Not that she wanted to be pregnant. Not that he wanted her to be pregnant. Not that he had ever thought about this in terms beyond those of the abstract.

"Yeah, you should probably wait until she's done with university before all of that. Until you're done with the whole equivalency text thing, too." Said Reigen. University. Mob would…she'd go off to university. Or go to one in the city. But she would…no. Stop thinking about Mob and the future and about how she could leave and just enjoy what you have with her now! Especially since you actually asked her to have something with you!

Not that. Don't think about her like that.

"You're right, that would make sense. She'd probably want to go to university since she spent so much time in school already. Not that she ever said which one she wants to go to." Said Serizawa. Reigen stared at him. He stared and stared until his eyes felt like they were in danger of drying out.

"She's…?" asked Reigen. The question hung in the air. It hung in the air like the smoke of the cigarette he wished that he had been smoking. She might have just been taking a gap year or something….but Serizawa had said that she was in school. Junior college? Tech school? Online offshore university?

"She's smart but she's not smart enough to skip straight to university, but it's nice that you think so highly of her. She hasn't even said anything about it yet, university, but I think she'll want to go. She really likes school. That's actually one of the reasons that I want to go. She just makes it sound so…fun. I don't remember it being that fun but I didn't have much control when I was a kid. The other kids used to try and make me explode for fun, actually. I don't think would happen again. The exploding part, not the making fun of me part. Also I, well, I can't help her with her homework. Her math has numbers in it and letters. It might as well be in Mandarin!" said Serizawa knowing that he was rambling. Reigen was just looking at him in a way that he didn't understand.

"Oh….ok then…" said Reigen because, well, that was a HELL of a lot to unpack. How was he even supposed to react? Well he knew how he was supposed to react. He was supposed to be shocked and freaked out that Serizawa was dating a girl in high school, and too young for university meant high school. He was supposed to tell Serizawa that dating a girl that young was wrong and that he was a terrible person for even thinking that it was ok. He was supposed to rant and rave and take the moral high ground.

But he couldn't.

Because that would make him a hypocrite.

And at least Serizawa had an excuse. The man was a mess plain and simple. One could not check out from the world for a decade and a half without being at least a little fucked up. Serizawa had an excuse for dating so far out of his age range. Reigen didn't. He knew that he didn't. He was, by all accounts, a well adjusted twenty nine year old. He had his own business, a clean-ish criminal record, and his poor alcohol tolerance meant that at least he couldn't be classified as a drunk. Oh, and he had a friend. A friend who he had been giving romantic advice to…to use on a high schooler.

Reigen still wasn't nearly as fucked up as Serizawa.

But he was terrible. People did not have thoughts like that about their friends.

Especially their only friends, and Serizawa was his only friend. Besides Mob. Or was Mob his girlfriend now. The word girlfriend…he hadn't applied it to anyone since university. But Mob was his girlfriend now. He gave her an inch and he would not take a mile. Even though he wanted to take a mile.

Even though he spent so much time thinking about taking that mile.

He had thought about her so many times, too many times. The way she'd feel, the little ways she'd gasp out his name. She'd be quiet, of course she would, he couldn't imagine her ever being loud. There was just this quietness about her. When she did speak, when she did make herself heard, it was always to say something important. To him, anyway.

She talked a lot sometimes. To Serizawa.

But Reigen was not jealous. Mob was his and she would always be his. She was his and he was hers and now they were together and this was not a mistake. This was not at all a mistake and Mob would be happy and if she was happy he was happy too. He would not take a mile. She wouldn't want him to. She was still Mob. She had kissed him, before, and that was all he could ask for from her. She was young, so young that she was not ready for what he wanted.

Another reason not to date a fifteen year old.

In Mob's world a relationship was kissing and cuddling and handholding. He knew that she probably didn't have pure and innocent thoughts every moment of the day but he also knew that there was a difference between the things that existed in your mind and the things that you were willing to bring into this reality. Adult relationships involved a lot of adult things that Mob was, obviously, not ready for. She was not ready and he could not push her. That would have been wrong.

This whole thing was wrong.

But she wanted it. She wanted it and he wanted her so he would give her what she wanted. He would of this before he lost her, and he was in danger of losing her. She had made that perfectly clear. Mob had been trying to make him jealous and it worked. That was why she had been talking to Serizawa so much, spending so much time with him, letting him cuddle up next to her on the office couch when they watched phone videos…letting him pick her up. A year ago Reigen would have thought Mob incapable of such subterfuge but that was then and this was now. A year ago he would have thought Mob incapable of kissing him, of walking up to him and confessing her feelings like that without a single thought to their future or their present.

But here they were.

And he would make the most of this.

Not that he got the chance to.

It took almost a week before he got to spend any time with Mob alone. She was always either with Serizawa or had something going on with her family. Reigen wouldn't dream of complaining, though, because she was her own person with her own life. Even though she had insisted a few times that Serizawa come with them for ramen and takoyaki or just hanging out. It was like those two were joined at the hip.

They made more of an effort to include Reigen, though, and he was grateful. Even though a lot of it went right over his head. Games and mangas and shows that he had never seen, or last seen when he was Mob's age…not exactly his area of expertise. But they were making an effort. Even though it still felt, somewhat, like Mob was trying to make him jealous. The little ways she'd let Serizawa touch her. The little smiles she'd give him when she knew full well that Reigen was looking. The way that she even asked him to pick her up.

Reigen would have picked her up if she had asked.

She was still using Serizawa to make him jealous. He needed to talk to her about that. She had him. It was over, whatever it had been, and they were fine now. She had what she wanted. She could stop it. She had everything that she had asked of him. Well, mostly everything. They were together but they never…not that he would ever ask that of her. Not that she would ask that of him, right? Or was that why she was trying to make him jealous….

Maybe he should just come out and ask her.

If they ever could find time to themselves.

"I hope Serizawa's alright on his own." Said Mob. She and Master Reigen were out getting ramen, they had been doing that a lot this week. Serizawa always came with, he felt bad when he wasn't included. It was good for him, too, to be out in society. If he was out in the world then the world would become less scary. She had to think about him, about what was best for him, if she had to spend her life with him.

Not that she didn't want to.

Not that the thought of spending her life with him scared her.

Not that she felt, sometimes, like she was being smothered.

Because she didn't and she was fine.

"He'll be fine. He's thirty one, Mob, he can survive on his own." Said Reigen. Serizawa was off trying to see if he could pass an elementary school equivalency test. He'd be fine. Mob was starting to treat Serizawa like he was made of glass. No, don't be mean. She was concerned for her friend. She was allowed to be concerned for whoever she wanted to be concerned for. It was good that Mob was showing so much concerned for her friend. For their mutual friend.

Not that he was jealous.

Not that he wished that Serizawa was back to being a stuttering mess, someone who could barely choke out 'Master Kageyama' before practically collapsing.

Not that he wished that Mob would show him that level of concern. He knew she cared about him. He searched his feelings and new it to be true. Heh.

"He just gets scared a lot of the time. I hope he took his umbrella, I told him to. Well I told him that it would be a good idea." Said Mob as she took a bite of food. Good noodles today.

"If he doesn't want to take it he doesn't have to. He's been carrying that thing around less lately, which is great. Except for that time when it started to rain." Said Reigen. The one time Serizawa forgets his umbrella. It had been when the three of them were out on a job, not that he wanted to bring all three of them. He had scheduled that job specifically in the afternoon so that he could bring Mob. Just him and Mob. But then she insisted on Serizawa coming. Not that Reigen had reason to complain. Serizawa was his friend after all.

"Where did that storm even come from? It had been so sunny before." Said Mob. They had been out on a job. It had been simple, in and out, but when they came out a sudden downpour had started. Serizawa had left his umbrella at home and it had been a very wet second before Mob and Serizawa remembered that they could just put up barriers.

"Rain spirits?" asked Reigen

"Monsoon spirits." Said Mob with a smile.

"We angered them by exorcising that slippery sidewalk spirit." Said Reigen

"That makes sense. You did end up slipping, Master." Said Mob

"Hey, you try walking around in dress shoes in the rain!" said Reigen. He smiled. She smiled. He put his hand over hers. She stopped smiling.

"What are you doing?" asked Mob. Master Reigen had reached across the table and put his hand over hers. Why? For what purpose?

"Something that I've wanted to do for a while." Said Reigen trying to sound romantic. This was his first date with Mob. Well, sort of date. She liked ramen and he had been taking her here for years. She was comfortable here. That was what mattered. Even though she deserved much better than this hole in the wall.

"I don't like to be tricked." Said Mob pulling her hand away. She kept her hands in her lap and stared down at what was left of her ramen. She made little whirlpools with her powers. She wanted to go and she wanted to stay. She wanted to put her hand back under his. She wanted to go home and hide because now all the feelings that she had been trying to ignore were coming back. She could not have these feelings. She was Serizawa's girlfriend.

"Mob, I'm not tricking you." Said Reigen. Where had that come from? Mob knew how he felt. He told her, weeks ago, that he loved her. Months ago. There was no way she could have forgotten that day.

"You are. You don't feel like that about me. I know you don't." said Mob. She knew that he was just telling her things to make her feel better. If he felt that way about her then he would have said something when Serizawa told him about their relationship.

"What….? Mob, you know that's not true." Said Reigen. He knew that Mob could be clueless but this was on a whole other level. He had made himself perfectly clear. He loved her and he wanted them to wait. She didn't want to wait so she decided to make him jealous. It worked and now here they were. Right? Did she seriously think that he…that he didn't feel the same about her?

"It is. You said so." Said Mob. She knew what he meant, his meaning was perfectly clear. He told her to wait because he didn't want to fully reject her. He wanted to make her feel better, he always told her things to make her feel better. That was just how he was.

"Mob…what the hell do you think that I said?" asked Reigen going over that day in his mind. He never once told Mob that he didn't love her. He told her that she needed to wait, that a relationship between the two of them would be difficult. He told her that he loved her, too. How did she misinterpret that?

"You said that you think that I'm too young for you to be in a relationship with." Said Mob. That was what he had said, plain as day. Master Reigen thought that she was too young and that was fine. She moved on. She was trying to move on. She was in a relationship with someone who loved her and she loved him! She loved Serizawa…even though right now her heart was beating so fast and she thought that she might have been hearing something that she had been wishing to hear for months but it was! wrong of her to want Mater Reigen to love her because she was with Serizawa but this was Master Reigen and she wanted him for so long and now it sounded like he wanted to be with her, too, and that would have been…wonderful….

"Yes…I said that…but then I asked you out. Mob, I asked you to come here because I want to be with you." Said Reigen. This was a date. This was so clearly a date. This was not…but this was the place that they always went to after work…ok this was on him. This part of the cluster fuck that this had clearly become was on him.

"Like on a date?" asked Mob blinking. This was a date? But…but she couldn't be on a date with him…but she wanted to be on a date with him. She had wanted to be on a date with him for so long. She had imagined the times that they got ramen or whatever else after work as dates for years. Now they were on a date. She didn't even know that they were on a date but they were on a date…

Was this ok?

She didn't know she was on a date so it must have been ok.

"Yes, on a date. This is a date. I want to be on this date with you. I just…that's why I asked you. I thought that you wanted…I just…I missed you and…and I want to make you happy." Said Reigen. At the end of the day all that would ever matter was her happiness. Her happiness was his happiness but right now there wasn't any happiness just…how could this have turned into such a cluster fuck?!

"We're on a date right now?" asked Mob trying to think of exactly how many ways she could be misreading this entire situation.

"Yes! This is a date! I want to be on a date with you!" said Reigen. OK, maybe a little too loud. Looks, he was getting a lot of looks. Right. She was so clearly fifteen and he was so clearly not and this was not the place to discuss this because he could feel the entire restaurant's, the entire city's, the entire world's eyes on them right now.

"You can't want to be on a date with me. You don't like me like that." Said Mob. Everything on the table was starting to float. No. How could he mess with her head like this? He didn't love her. He wasn't in love with her. If he was in love with her and she was in love with him then she had no reason to be Serizawa's girlfriend so then she'd have to break up with him but she could never make him feel that kind of pain…the same kind of pain that Master Reigen had made her feel.

"Mob. I love you. You know that I love you and you know that I want to be with you more than anything else in the world." Said Reigen. She knew this. She must have known this. He had made himself perfectly clear. How much clearer could he have been? He loved her. He told her that he loved her! Dammit Mob, get a clue already!

"No. You…you don't want to be with me. If you wanted to be with me then you would have been with me when I told you…when I told you how I felt. You don't feel the same way." Said Mob. He couldn't. He couldn't lie to her like this and play with her heart like this! Hearts were not toys!

"Mob, I do." Said Reigen taking her hand again. He took it and she tried to pull it away. He held it. She needed to know. She need to know the truth of how he felt about her. How she was the only person he wanted to be with. How it had been for her, always for her.

"No you don't." said Mob, the table rattling. He didn't! He didn't and he couldn't! Why? Why was he telling her all of this now?! She was in love with Serizawa! She had to be! She was Serizawa's girlfriend and he knew that!

"Mob, I do. I love you. You know that I love you." Said Reigen. She didn't know. She really didn't know. She…she thought that she had been rejected. Right. She had told Serizawa that. But how could he have ever rejected her? She was…she was Mob. Who could ever reject Mob?

"Don't…don't lie to me, Master. Please, don't lie to me anymore." Said Mob, her eyes starting to get prickly and warm and wet. She wiped them with the back of her hand. Oh. She was using her powers, too. She put everything down where it belonged. The broth from their ramen sloshed down onto the table. People were looking at them now. Lots and lots of people.

"Lie to you? Mob, I am not lying to you, you know that, right? Is that what you think? Mob, I will never lie to you again. I promised you, remember?" asked Reigen. After that awful two weeks he made her a promise. He would never lie to her again. He meant it, she must have known that he had meant it. Unless she hadn't believed him. Unless she thought that he was lying. Liar. He had been a liar to her for so many years. She had no reason to believe a word he did, did she?

It hurt.

"No…you are lying to me. If you were telling the truth then you would have…you wouldn't have rejected me." Said Mob. He had rejected her and she was just now starting to be ok with that. Why was he telling her all of this now? Why? Was he…was he just jealous? Was he just jealous that she had found someone else? Someone who loved her. Someone who would never lie to her? Or had he always felt like this but she was just too dumb to see it? Had she just been dumb and misread the atmosphere?

"Mob…you think…I never rejected you. I asked you to wait…" said Reigen slowly. Asking her to wait three years was not the same as telling her 'no'. He just needed to wait until she at least reached the age of majority. That was all he asked of her. Three years was not a long time!

"That's the same as rejecting me." Said Mob softly. He had wanted her to wait in order to buy himself time. He thought that she would move on. Three years was a long time. If he had wanted to be with her than he would have agreed to be in a relationship with her when she confessed to him.

"No, Mob, it's not. It's not anything close to being the same thing!" said Reigen. He knew he shouldn't have spoken to her like that but…this was frustrating! That was how she saw it? He says wait and she hears 'I don't love you'?

"Yes it is!" said Mob. The table jumped a little. She quickly tried to calm herself down. It had to be the same thing, it had to be. If it wasn't then…then she made a huge mistake.

"Mob…Mob we have a lot to talk about, ok? And not here." Said Reigen. People were looking and had been for a while. They needed to have this conversation somewhere private. Somewhere neutral. Neutral but safe. Not out in the world. The office? Maybe. He couldn't really think of anywhere else.

"Where?" asked Mob. What did it matter where they talked about it? She just wanted this conversation to be over. Either he was lying to her or she had really, really, REALLY messed up…

"The office, maybe? Just…not in public. We need to talk. Fuck…Mob we need to talk." Said Reigen. He got up, she followed. He paid the bill and out they went. They said nothing on the walk there. Each other them on their own trains of thought.

Reigen's was in the past going over every word that he remembered ever saying to her that day. He hadn't rejected her at all…but he could see how she saw it that way. The way she kept on saying that she understood that he saw things that way…but there was no other way to see it…but she had found a way.

Such a mess.

Mob's was in the present going over everything that she could say. She wanted so badly to believe him but she didn't want to believe him either. If she believed him then she would have to break up with Serizawa…and he could not handle that. He loved her, he really did. He showed her he loved her, and not just through sex. He was there for her. He held her and listened to her talk. He wasn't afraid to be with her. He never once said that she was too young. He never told her to wait. He loved her and she…she loved him? Right? She did. She had to love him because he loved her but she also loved Master Reigen. Master Reigen…he didn't show her that he loved her. He just carried on with her in the way that he always had. Was that how he showed her he loved her? But he stopped touching her and cuddling with her. She needed more than sex but she did need sex.

Such a mess.

She had made a mess. No, he had made a mess too. If he wanted to be with her then he should have said something. If he wanted to be with her then he should have been with her instead of waiting for her to move on.

He knew she was Serizawa's girlfriend. Serizawa said that he had told Master Reigen that back when they first started their relationship.

If he knew then why was he still pursuing her?

And why was she letting him?


	15. Heartfelt Betrayal

"Ok, we're here. Let's talk." Said Mob. They were in the office again. It looked different at night. Lonelier, somehow. She was on the couch. Master Reigen was pacing back and forth.

"Mob….just…I need you to listen very carefully." Said Reigen stopping in front of her. She looked up at him. He looked down at her. She seemed very…calm…about all of this. Or just suppressing her emotions. He would believe either.

"I am listening, Master." Said Mob. She felt everything right then and there. She felt nervous, like she was in trouble, but she wasn't because she had done nothing wrong. She had misread the atmosphere but he had been the one to make it intentionally hard to read.

"Don't." said Reigen shaking his head.

"Don't do what? Listen?" asked Mob. She hadn't done anything but listen. Why did he have to be so confusing? He said one thing and meant another, just like before.

"No, don't call me Master." Said Reigen

"Why not?" asked Mob

"Because right now that's not who I am to you." Said Reigen

"Like when I confessed to you?" asked Mob, a slight tone in her voice.

"..yes…" said Reigen after a moment. That was what he had said, back then.

"And when you rejected me?" asked Mob with that same tone.

"God-fucking-damn it Mob! I did not reject you!" said Reigen stomping his foot like he had been apt to do when he was her age.

"Then why did you push me away? Why did you say no?" asked Mob balling her hands into fists in her skirt. The couch was starting to rise up off the ground.

"I did not say no, Shigeko. I asked you to wait." Said Reigen. She hated her given name and that was why she used it. So she would pay some attention for once!

"That's the same thing, Arataka." Said Mob standing up. If they were going to talk like equals then they were going to stand like equals.

"No it is not! In three years, when you turn eighteen. That's when I said that I would be comfortable dating you. Hell, even that's too young!" said Reigen

"I don't see what difference three years makes." Said Mob

"Three years, Mob, means that you'll be an adult, sort of. Three years means that your parents won't murder me for dating you. Three years means that my mother won't murder me for dating you. Three years means that this will be less creepy than what it is now!" said Reigen

"There's nothing creepy about this!" said Mob

"There is something very creepy about a man my age dating a girl your age!" said Reigen

"No there isn't! I love you and love is the only thing that matters!" said Mob

"What people think matters!" said Reigen

"What I think matters!" said Mob

"That's why I gave you an inch!" said Reigen

"…huh…?" asked Mob

"That's why I asked you out on a proper date. I know that you want that from me. You're fifteen, I know what a relationship looks like to you." Said Reigen

"What does it look like to me?" asked Mob

"Dates, kissing, handholding, things like that. I can give you what you want, Mob. I wanted to give you what you want because I missed you. I missed us." Said Reigen

"But I've been right here." Said Mob

"But you haven't, not in the real way. I missed talking to you, I mean really talking. I missed the way that we used to just…be…together. I wanted that back, Mob, and I decided that I couldn't give you everything but I could make you happy." Said Reigen

"I'm not happy now. I feel all mixed up inside." Said Mob

"You and me both." Said Reigen

"If you were going to be in a couple with me then why did you tell me to wait? If you had just been with me like I wanted to begin with then…" said Mob

"Because…because even this is a lot for me." Said Reigen

"I don't understand." Said Mob

"Mob…you saw all the looks that we were getting back there, right?" asked Reigen

"Because you were screaming." Said Mob

"No, because I'm so much older than you! Just…this is not normal…and don't give me that crap about the damn consent laws. This isn't about that! This is about…this is about how bad this looks." Said Reigen

"So you are rejecting me, then." Said Mob

"What? No, I'm not. Mob, I would never reject you…I love you." Said Reigen

"Don't say that." Said Mob

"Why? I thought this is what you wanted…" said Reigen

"This is. I want this more than anything else in the entire world." Said Mob

"Then let me say it. You certainly had no problem saying it before." Said Reigen

"That was before…" said Mob

"Fine, ok, I did try and reject you before. I tried to brush you off, I tried to push you away, and I tried to straight up hurt you. I did that because…because it took me a while to get to the point where I'm comfortable feeling like this. Mob…I haven't been attracted to someone your age since I WAS your age. This is a lot for me, ok? I never thought that I would be the sort of grown man who dates teenage girls. It just…I had to figure myself out. I had to be ok with this." Said Reigen

"But I was always ok with this…" said Mob

"You and I are two separate people, Mob. Your life is your own and my life is my own and it's just….some things are harder for me than they are for you. You know?" asked Reigen

"Harder? Mast-Reigen. Everything is so easy for you." Said Mob

"No it's not." Said Reigen

"Yes it is." Said Mob

"No, Mob, it's not. Ok? I'm a mess. I'm not as much of a mess as Serizawa but I am a mess." Said Reigen

"Serizawa…" said Mob

"And I know you were using him to make me jealous." Said Reigen

"I wasn't using-" said Mob

"I'm jealous, ok? I'm jealous. I'm jealous of the way you look at him, the way you talk to him, the way you let him pick you up. It keeps me up at night how jealous I am of him. Ok? Your plan worked. I got jealous enough to actually start dating you." Said Reigen

"But Master….I never tried to-" said Mob

"Mob…Mob stop. Ok? I know…I know that you could never just cast your feelings so easily aside. I know that I hurt you and I know that I deserved it, seeing you two together. OK? I know and I'm so, so, so sorry for hurting you." Said Reigen. He took her hand in his. The other hand found her waist.

"Master…." Said Mob. She couldn't move, she couldn't think. He was so close. He hadn't be this close to her in so long. He was getting closer.

"Don't…don't call that when we're like this." said Reigen

"Like what?" asked Mob

"This." said Reigen.

Then he kissed her.

She kissed him back.

One hand in his, the other hand held him by the shoulder. He was short enough that she could do this without stretching. He kissed her deeply. She kissed him back. He tried to pull away but she pulled him closer. She had been waiting for this for so long. She didn't care about anything else. She couldn't think about anything else. The only thing that she could focus on was the fact that Reigen Arataka was kissing her. He was finally kissing her and it felt like she had been waiting for this moment for her entire life.

She felt small in his arms, he thought. Small and soft and perfect. He hadn't mean to kiss her for this long. He hadn't meant to kiss her this deeply. His mouth was closed. Hers was opening. He let her. Even though his lungs were crying out for air he let her. He had a lifetime of breathing under his belt, he only had precious few seconds of kissing Mob. Even if she was tongue stabbing him. He cut her some slack, it was only her second kiss ever after all.

He tasted like cigarettes. She liked it. Cigarettes and ramen and tea. It was amazing. He was amazing and this WAS AMAZING. Both of his hands were around her waist now. She closed her eyes. His tongue pushed against hers, almost like they were fighting. No, wait…he was leading now. She always led. This was nice. Slower. Slower was better. He tasted her. She tasted him. She could only focus on the taste of him, the feel of him. She could feel her powers reaching out. She didn't stop them. She could feel herself beginning to float and two strong hands pulled her back down.

"Mob…" said Reigen. She was so…there were not words. She was floating a little bit, her hair was splayed out all around her like she was underwater. Her lips were kiss bruised and her eyes were heavy and half lidded. She was breathing so heavily and her fingers were digging into him through his suit coat. It was like she was trying to make sure that he was there, that she could anchor herself to him, because otherwise she would float away.

He made her feel that good.

She made him feel that good.

"I'm kissing you…" said Mob. He was breathing so deeply. His hand were so strong around her waist. He was looking at her like…like he loved her. He loved her. HE LOVED HER. It was like…like all the pain that he had caused her, all the dull aching that had been her constant companion had vanished. Gone walkabouts. She was kissing him and he was kissing her back. There was nobody else in the entire world but the two of them. He was all she desired.

"Kiss me again." Said Reigen. He needed her. He needed to touch her, to kiss her. She was his. A gift. A gift to him. A gift given to him for reasons that he did not know. She took it away, all of it. The pain he had felt. All of it. The dull stabbing was gone. Nothing but warmth. The warmth that she caused to burst into life within him.

She kissed him again.

Third kiss was better than the second.

Her enthusiasm was less unbridled. She explored him attentively. He explored her just as attentively. Biting her lower lip earned him a gasp. Taking her tongue within him and sucking, something which had never failed, did not fail him again. That earned him the most delicious mewing sound that he had ever heard. Better than any dirty talk that he had ever heard before. Not that he should have been thinking of everything that had happened before her. Practice. It had all been practice until he could get to this moment with her.

Master Reigen led well. He had always led well. Even if he lied about having spiritual powers he had still been a good leader. He had led her away from a terrible path in life and now he was leading her down this one. The things he could do with his mouth, the way he could make her feel…how had she gone so long without this! Without him! She needed him. She needed to feel everything that he could make her feel.

She stepped closer to him. She pressed against him. He was short enough that they could sort of line up like this.

Reigen acted on instinct. He knew what she wanted, the simple part of his brain. The part that only saw her as female and him as male. The part of him that didn't know her when she was eleven. The part of him that didn't remember when she was little. The part that didn't care how small she was now. This part of him pulled her close and let her press her entire self against him. She was practically rutting against him and it was perfect.

Mob pressed herself against him trying to get some relief from the growing warmth within her. He took a step back, she followed. She pressed herself against him because she needed to feel all of him. She knew that her powers were acting up. She heard what sounded like a bookshelf turning on it's side. She didn't care. She just cared about this feeling, the one that he could create within her. She pushed against him again and found his knee. She didn't care. It pressed against her, that was all that mattered.

Mob wanted him. MOB wanted him. Mob WANTED him. Mob wanted HIM. He had put a knee between her legs mainly to stop her from pushing him into the couch. He could feel it swaying in some invisible breeze, he assumed that everything in the office was caught up in the storm, no, the breeze of her mind. The world had shrunk to just the two of them and frankly he didn't give a damn about anything else. Nothing else mattered but the two of them in that moment in time. Him. Her. Them. Reigen. Mob. Arataka. Shigeko.

"It's good…" said Mob. She just needed to be touched there. His hands were still around her waist. She wished that he would just reach down already because she was ACHING for him. He had chased away one ache and replaced it with another. This was a good ache. She pressed herself against him again.

"Mob…dammit Mob…" said Reigen. She was the picture of chaste arousal. Her eyes so wide that they were black, her face a deep red, her finger digging into his back, her chest heaving, and the feel of her rutting against him…and she was rutting. She was trying to find relief from…was that her? He felt something wet through his pant leg and what blood remained in his body rushed downwards.

She wanted him that badly.

"So good…" said Mob. She kissed him again. She went lower this time, to his neck. She kissed him with the enthusiasm that only she could muster. Someone like her, someone in her position. To go from her second kiss to this…she wanted this. She wanted this, he could feel it. Her enthusiasm. Her gasps. Her groans. The slickness that she was pressing against him.

"It can be better." Said Reigen before he reached down, under her skirt. Mob whimpered and it was the greatest sound that he had ever heard. Mob didn't set out to make that sound, it had just happened. It had just happened like all of this was just happening. How had she even gotten here? With Master Reigen's hand up her skirt and pushing her underwear to the side and-

Yes.

Oh yes.

God yes.

She was standing at attention for him. He didn't explore it, no, he just went for it. Between two fingers. Long strokes of it. Pressure. Hard. Just strokes. She reached down. He needed to push down from the top. She took his hand and showed him.

"Like this? This is what you like?" asked Reigen as she buried her head in his shoulder. He rested his head in her hair and kissed the top of her head.

"inside…inside too. I want…I want you to be inside…." Gasped Mob. She kissed him, whatever skin of his she could reach. He stopped for a second. It was the longest second of her life.

"Mob…I don't want to hurt you." Said Reigen. She was a virgin. She didn't know what she was saying. He could have so easily hurt her and then he would never forgive himself-

"It won't….it doesn't…it couldn't….please…" said Mob practically whispering. Like a prayer, a quiet prayer said in the night, in desperation. She was desperate. She needed this. She needed him. She needed him inside of her.

"Tell me if I'm hurting you." Said Reigen. She wanted this and she wanted him and she knew her own body and she knew what she liked and what she wanted and she wanted him to be the man to give it to her. He moved down slowly and breached her even slower. She thought that he was teasing her. She tried to impale herself on his finger. She needed him to be inside of her.

Reigen entered her slowly. He needed to give her time to adjust. She was a virgin. He was the first person to ever…he rutted against her. Now it was his turn. He worked one finger into her but she was still…she was begging him. He knew what she would like. Two inside of her, and his thumb working up top. Tried and true. She loved it. She threw herself down onto him. She clutched him. Her hands clutched his shoulders and she clutched his fingers within her. He could feel it, her, her pleasure. The pleasure that he was giving her. She fluttered around him. She bore down on him.

He felt every muscle in her body tense.

Then she let go.

But she didn't let go of him.

She looked up at him with eyes a quarter of the way opened. He tried to pull his hand away but she held her there with her thighs. She looked up at him.

"More…please…" said Mob. How could it have been over so soon? She had been waiting for this moment for her entire life, it seemed like. They couldn't be done. She needed…she could again. She knew that she could. She could and she wanted to and she…she wanted to feel all of him. She reached down to the front of his slacks.

"Please…" said Mob. She traced the length of him. He pushed against her. Reigen kissed her again. The little man in his head, the one who made sure that he didn't make bad decisions, went for a tea break. She wanted this and she wanted him and he wanted her right back. That was all that mattered. He felt like he was the one who was fifteen, not her. He was the one who was acting without thinking. He didn't think about the fact that the office door wasn't locked, that she was a virgin, that condoms were a thing, that fourteen years separated them. He didn't care about any of that. He just cared about her and this and yes! He had been waiting for this moment for so long. How many times had he gone over this in his mind? How many nights had he spent tossing and turning trying to banish thoughts of this moment from his mind? How many times had he let thoughts of this moment consume him? Allowed the idea of her, the way she would look, sound, taste, and feel, invade his mind until he weaved something so close to reality that it was a shock when it ended in a sticky hand and a lonely bed?

He turned her around and pressed her against the couch. She pulled it back down with her powers. He tossed his suit coat off, then his tie. She watched him. He tried to undo his buttons but he couldn't. She tugged on his shirt with her powers, it didn't help.

"Fuck it!" said Reigen. He undid his shirt as best as he could and pulled it over his head. She hooked her legs around him before he could think and ground herself against him as hard as she could. He let himself rest against her. She soaked into his pants as she ground into him. She was truly the restless virgin. Maybe he was, too. Not the virgin part but the restlessness. Restless to be with her. To be within her. He undid his belt as best as he could. He tried to shimmy his way out of his pants when she reached down, with her hands, and freed him from his boxers.

"Want you…inside…of me…" said Mob. That was all she could think about. Him. That. Her. It. Sex. Instrumentality. The two of them finally turning to LCL together. She couldn't focus on anything else, just the way he felt. The way he looked there with his hair plastered to his head and his undershirt plastered to his chest and his pants half off and the way he looked with his underwear half pulled down and wow! He had a lot of hair there and it was just as reddish yellow as the hair on his head. She wanted to feel him, to see how it would feel, red against black.

What else could he say to that besides yes? What else could be said? She was laying there on her back and her chest was heaving and her hair was floating and her skirt was completely ridden up and he could see just how much she wanted him, her underwear was pretty much as transparent with want as she was, and of course he could and would give her what she wanted. He hooked his thumbs in her waistband and peeled her underwear off of her. White.

"Tell me if…if it hurts.." said Reigen because she was a virgin and he could not forget that. She was a virgin and this was her first time and he needed to make this good for her. He needed to take this slow even though all he wanted to do was to pull her onto him and make her scream his name.

"It won't…" said Mob. She pushed herself against him. She could feel him against her entrance. He pushed in slowly, so slowly….and then he stopped.

It was real.

This was really happening to her.

She was really doing this with him.

Master Reigen.

Reigen Arataka.

This was real and it dawned on her, then, in that moment, what she was doing. Who she was doing this with. Who she was becoming one with, and they were becoming one, and it….how did he make it feel so good?! How could it feel like this? Not thick enough but…her toes curled. She screwed her eyes shut. He had a hand down there, too. Inside and out. He was…he was touching her inside and out.

"Here…this? You like this?" asked Reigen. Short experimental strokes until he found the place that she loved. He let her lead, sort of. She guided him in, she guided him to what she liked. That was the trick. You couldn't just ram it in and expect to find out what she liked and how she liked it right away. Women knew what they liked and they'd always show you. Mob certainly knew what she liked and she was more than willing to show him.

"Yes….!" said Mob. It turned into just noises towards the end of that. Just gasping and grunting and begging and pleading and then he shifted a little until he was deeper, but not by much, but then she was grinding against his finger and him and his other hand reached under her shirt and-

She screamed.

She covered her mouth.

He pushed her hand away.

Then he moved like that again.

She screamed again.

Then he moved like that again.

Then she screamed again.

She didn't stop. She saw spots in her vision. Something shattered. A few things shattered. A book his her on the head. Potting soil rained down from the ceiling.

And he kept moving.

"Mob…ride it through…ride it through…tell me…tell me…" said Reigen. This was not at all like in his mind. She had never, ever, in his wildest dreams screamed like this. She expressed herself verbally so seldom in her life…but here she was, screaming. Not even words. She was rocking and grinding against him and her nails were digging into his arms and this entire moment was just the most perfect moment in his life and he could not last much longer and-

He didn't.

"I love you!" said Mob finding some words. Those were words. Those words fit the situation. She said it over and over again as she came down. He was rocking into her harder and harder. His eyes were closed, his face was all scrunched up, and he stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth. He looked funny that way. Serizawa usually just smiled and rolled off of her.

Serizawa.

It was like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her.

Serizawa.

She was being kissed.

Serizawa.

She was being held.

Serizawa.

She was handed something.

Serizawa.

She was kissed again.

Serizawa.

"Hey Mob, you should clean up…" said Reigen. Well now the man in his head was back. The tea break was over and Reigen could see, clearly, how badly he had fucked up.

He fucked Mob.

He had sex with Mob.

He made love with Mob.

Mob had lost her virginity on the office couch in her school uniform. The office couch. She was still almost fully dressed. So was he, almost. No wonder she was just sitting there. This had been…the office couch.

The office couch.

She loved him and this was the best that he could do.

The office couch.

She trusted him and this was the best that he could do.

The office couch.

The first time, the only time she was guaranteed to remember for the rest of her life.

The office couch.

No wonder she was so quiet. No wonder she wouldn't look at him. No wonder she was so still, still as death. She had just…this was something that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. The couch. This filthy fucking couch that he had gotten for free. This couch that was covered in tea and takoyaki sauce and God knew what else. This couch…him. This was the best that he could do. He…on the couch…like she was some cheap…

She deserved better.

How often had she imagined this? What had she wanted? Something better than this, that was for sure. This was what he gave her. This was what he could give her. The office couch. The goddamned office couch. Mob's first time was on the office couch. He had sex with Mob on the office couch. Unprotected sex.

He had unprotected sex with Mob.

Unprotected sex.

"Mob…hey…listen…" said Reigen. He needed to tell her that he was sorry, so sorry. He was sorry for doing this with her here. He was sorry for not thinking when he agreed to do this with her. He was sorry for potentially…oh God…she could be pregnant! She could be pregnant or…when was the last time he was tested? He always…he was usually good about…but usually was not one hundred percent of the time…

The office couch.

Mob.

Unprotected.

"I have to go home now. It's late and my family is probably wondering where I am." Said Mob sounding more like a machine, like a doll, than he had ever heard her in his life. He reached over and took her hand.

"Hey…listen…I…I…" said Reigen. I'm sorry. I think you should get tested. I'm taking you to the doctor. I'll stand by you no matter what you choose to do. I love you. I want you to stay. I want you to forgive me.

"I have to go home now. Goodnight, Master Reigen." Said Mob. She pulled her underwear back up, used her powers to find her school bag, and left.

Reigen watched her leave. He didn't blame her. He couldn't blame her.


	16. Confessions from the Heart

A sense of sliminess clung to Mob. It clung to her as she walked home. Well, she was slimy. She could feel it between her thighs as she walked. She tried to walk faster but she couldn't escape it. It had felt so good, during, but now it just felt slimy. The remains of it. Of her and him spread across her inner thighs. Slimy.

Slimy and gross.

She was slimy and gross.

How could she have…she wanted that. She wanted that and now she had it and she should be happy, and she had been happy. So happy. The happiest she had ever been in her life. She had been on top of the world, then, when Master Reigen was on top of her. But now she came down. Now she came down to Earth.

It felt like when she had been fighting Sho's dad. When she had literally been on top of the world and all she could do was look down at creation. When she finally felt free. When she could let go of all of her fear and rage and hate and love and joy and sorrow and just be free. But when she realized what she was doing. She looked down and realized that in being free she was hurting the people she loved.

She had been free. In being free she had hurt the person she loved. The person who loved her.

Did she love Serizawa?

Or did he just love her?

She didn't want to answer that question.

She knew that she was in love with Master Reigen though. She knew that she loved him more than anything else in the world and that sharing herself with him had been the most beautiful time in her life. Beautiful and amazing and perfect and she never, ever, wanted it to end. But it did end.

And now she was like this.

Slimy and gross.

She opened the front door with her powers. She was careful not to wake up mom and dad. If she woke up mom and dad then they would ask her where she had been and what she had been doing because it was very late and she didn't have a set curfew but she was supposed to be home at a reasonable hour. Well this was not a reasonable hour at all and she did not feel like explaining what happened to anyone in the world, let alone her parents. Mom and dad could not know.

She could handle this on her own, anyway.

She just had to…

She just had to get rid of the slimy feeling clinging between her legs. She just had to get rid of the…the remnants of what she and Master Reigen did.

Serizawa.

She just had to take a bath. She just had to walk up the stairs, fill the tub with water, and then take a bath. Scrub herself down first and then take a bath. Soak in the tub and be clean. A bath. She had been takin baths for her entire life. She knew what to do. She knew where the bathroom was. She knew how to walk up the stairs. She knew how to cross the hallway.

Serizawa.

Mob knew what she needed to do and she needed to do it. She put one foot in front of the other. Then she repeated the actions with her other foot. There, simple. Her body was just having trouble listening, that was all. She just needed to…she needed to take a bath. She'd take a bath and then afterwards she would….she would do something. She had to do something. She had messed up. She had to….she had to finish climbing the stairs.

Serizawa.

She climbed the stairs slowly. She needed to get up there and take a bath. She needed to take a bath so she could get rid of this slimy feeling. She needed to go up the stairs and into the bathroom. Did her house always have this many stairs? Was the staircase always so steep? Were her feet always so heavy? Was she always so-

She was sore.

She was that good kind of sore. The kind of sore that she was after she and Serizawa…but that hadn't been Serizawa. That had been Master Reigen and he was…he was amazing. That had been amazing. He was less…scared. Sometimes Serizawa touched her like he was afraid that she was made of glass and liable to shatter into a million pieces. Sometimes he went so slowly and so gently that she could even feel him. She felt Master Reigen. She knew what he felt like. What he sounded like. What he kissed like.

He was a good kisser.

Serizawa.

She was supposed to only be with Serizawa. She was Serizawa's girlfriend! Master Reigen knew that she was Serizawa's girlfriend. She loved Serizawa! She had to because she said that she had to and she was not a liar or a heartbreaker. But she was a cheater. An adulterer. She had sex with someone who was not her boyfriend.

She had wanted to for so long. It had been amazing.

But it had not been right.

It had been so not right that there was no way to-to make it right. She just…she couldn't tell Serizawa. If he knew what she did then he would hate her. His heart would be broken and he would hate her for the rest of their lives until one of them died. Then he would lock himself in his room forever, or he could go back to working for bad guys. He could not ever, ever, ever know.

But Master Reigen loved her.

And she loved Master Reigen.

She didn't know what she was supposed to do. She didn't know so she walked down the hallway to the bathroom so she could get rid of this slimy feeling. Her underwear was sticking to her. It felt so gross. Usually she just used her powers to get rid of the slimy stuff afterwards. Most of it, anyway, the deeper stuff tended to come out later on and it felt gross. Almost as gross as she felt now. She walked quietly. She didn't take long strides, that just made the gross feeling worse. She walked carefully past Ritsu's door, making sure to keep her aura as close to herself as possible. She could see two auras in his room. Dark blue and dark red. Sho was there. She heard talking, low tones.

"I'm not a hamster!"

"I know you're not, Ritsu! I just….I love you! When you love someone you take care of them!"

Ritsu and Sho were fighting. They were both right. Ritsu was not a hamster and Sho didn't need to treat him like one. Sho also loved Ritsu and when you loved someone you were supposed to take care of them. Serizawa loved her and he took care of her. He always did what she wanted to do and made sure that she was safe and happy and comfortable and-and-and she had no reason to hurt him like this! She couldn't…she hurt him. She hurt him and she shouldn't have.

Serizawa.

There was the sound of a window slamming shut.

Mob wanted to go in there and comfort Ritsu. He and Sho were fighting and now Sho was gone and Ritsu was probably really hurt and he needed comfort and it was Mob's job to comfort her little brother but she was so gross and slimy right now and she couldn't talk to anybody when she was like this and also Ritsu was her brother so she could not see him when she was in this state.

So she went into the bathroom. She drew herself a bath. She got into the tub. She forgot to scrub down beforehand. She got the water all dirty. She let herself soak in the water. The water was hot, very hot. Her skin was turning red. She was turning red. She didn't care. She let the water soak into her skin. She called her soap over and her scrubbing thing. It was pink, everything that was hers was pink. Her soap was pink. Her shampoo was pink. Her conditioner was pink. Her toothbrush was pink. Her hairbrush was pink.

And she was red.

Mob scrubbed her skin maybe a little too hard. Her soap smelled like flowers. She didn't know what kind of flowers, it just said flowers. So did her shampoo and conditioner. She smelled like flowers. Master Reigen smelled like smoking. Smoking and stale sweat and incense and tea. That was what he smelled like when they were that close. Himself, too. There was also something that she could only call Master Reigen.

Serizawa smelled like plastic and boy soap and dental floss, because he worked hard at taking care of his teeth these days, and tea and himself. He smelled different from Master Reigen. She liked it. She liked the way he smelled when she was pressed against him. Not just when they had sex but when they cuddled. When he held onto her in the middle of the night like he was afraid that she was going to run away and it smothered her a little but also made her feel safe, she realized now, and she needed to be held and she needed to feel safe because right now nothing made any sense and it felt like the floor was coming apart from under her and she needed to fly but she forgot how so she was going to fall and-

She was scrubbing herself way too hard. She wasn't even supposed to put soap there! Mom told her, back when she first started getting older and all the gross stuff that came with it, that soap did not go there because it would throw everything else off and she'd end up itchier than she had ever been in her life.

Mob stopped scrubbing.

She was clean. She still felt all slimy but she was clean. She got out of the tub. She dried off. She tied her towel around herself even though mom said that she was too old to walk around like this. She forgot to bring in pajamas with her. She'd get dressed later. She needed to get changed into pajamas and go to sleep because she needed sleep to live. It was late, so late, and she needed to get changed.

She picked up her uniform.

It smelled. There was the heavy musky sort of smell that came with sex and also…it smelled like Master Reigen. She needed to wash it. She didn't want to wash it. But she could not walk around in a uniform that smelled like this. But she wanted to smell him, to smell like him. But she couldn't.

Serizawa.

Mob didn't bother getting dressed. She just went to the laundry room in her towel and used her powers to toss in her uniform, undershirt, and underwear. Too much detergent. Too much fabric softener, the nice fabric softener that was just for Ritsu's clothes because he had sensitive skin. She watched the clothes in the washing machine window. Very sudsy. Very clean. She stayed there watching the clothes until the cycle was over. Then she moved them to the dryer. Too many dryer sheets. But you could never have too many.

Serizawa said that. He showed her how to do laundry last weekend. Felt like forever ago.

He liked watching the clothes wash too. It was like a TV show but the show was about dirty clothes.

He liked a lot of fabric softener too. Lots of dryer sheets, too. He liked to smell good, he said, because he spent too much of his life smelling really terrible.

He liked doing laundry. She liked doing laundry with him.

That had been a good day. Would they still be able to have good days like that? What would become of them? Did she…did she want to break up with him? She didn't…what she wanted didn't matter. He loved her and…and she could not hurt someone who loved her. What she wanted didn't matter. She had hurt him. She had hurt him so badly and-and she had wanted to.

She had wanted that with Master Reigen for so long.

The dryer stopped. Then it dinged. Then Mob took out her uniform and put it back on. If she put on pajamas and went to sleep then tomorrow would happen. If she got dressed and then…and then was dressed…and then stayed up forever…then tomorrow would not happen! No…that was crazy and she was crazy for thinking like that. Now she was just in her school uniform, it smelled like a garden exploded, and she had nothing to do.

She didn't want to be alone.

But where could she go?

She didn't want to be alone.

She went back over to her room. She didn't want to be alone but…but what else could she do. She laid down on her futon but left the lights on. She looked up at the ceiling. There was no crack there. She rolled onto her side. There, on her desk, was the model that Serizawa made for her. Her as an EVA pilot and her very own EVA to pilot. He made her that. He didn't have to but he did. He couldn't wait to show her…and he picked her up…and he cared so much about her.

Mob didn't want to be alone.

Ritsu was there. She could feel his aura. He was awake. Sho hadn't come back yet, if he was even planning on coming back. He was probably feeling sad and lonely. Mob could…they could make each other feel better. They had always been there for each other for as long as they could remember. She could make him feel better, comfort him in his hour of need. She could do that. She just…she could do that.

Then she wouldn't be alone.

She knocked on his door softly.

"Ritsu, are you awake?" asked Mob, careful not to wake mom and dad up. The door swung opened. His lights were off. He was laying on his bed. Mob laid next to him.

"Hi." Said Mob as she laid next to him.

"Hello." Said Ritsu quietly. He was staring up at the ceiling. She stared with him. They were quiet for a moment.

"I'm not a hamster. I'm not but he treats me like I am." Said Ritsu

"You told Sho that he was smothering you?" asked Mob

"Yeah. Then he said he was sorry. Then he went back to doing it." Said Ritsu

"Serizawa's like that too…." Said Mob

"Please don't mention him….it's too weird…" said Ritsu

"You think it's weird?" asked Mob

"Yes! Really weird!" said Ritsu

"But he loves me…" said Mob

"Sister…that's the weird part…" said Ritsu

"You love Sho. Some people think that's weird." Said Mob

"Don't compare Sho and I to…that. OK? Sho's my age. Besides, Serizawa tried to take over the world, remember? I remember." Said Ritsu

"I forgave Serizawa. He came over to my side and then he helped me and he saved….Master Reigen. Sho's done bad stuff too. He burnt down our house." Said Mob

"We forgave him. He had his reasons, important reasons." Said Ritsu

"So did Serizawa." said Mob

"Sister…I don't want to fight with you….I don't want to fight with anyone else tonight." Said Ritsu

"You and Sho had a fight? I heard you guys but I didn't know that it was a fight. I'm so, so, sorry." asked Mob

"It wasn't really a fight. He just…I don't know. He keeps on trying to…take care of me I guess. Like I'm his hamster or something. I just…I don't need someone to take care of me." Said Ritsu

"You're supposed to take care of the people you love. You love me and you try to take care of me…" said Mob

"Even though you won't let me." Said Ritsu

"I don't need you to take care of me. I can take care of myself…but it's still nice that you want to take care of me…" Said Mob

"When you love someone you're supposed to take care of them…but I don't need someone to take care of me…and I don't know how to take care of him…" said Ritsu still looking up at the ceiling.

"I love you and I want to take care of you and you love me and you want to take care of me. Maybe there are different kinds of caring. Like maybe he treats you like a hamster because you mean as much to him as Sunflower does." Said Mob. It was easier to talk to him about his problems and to offer him advice than to talk about what was bothering her.

"Did you really come here this late to talk about this?" asked Ritsu

"I heard you and Sho talking and I just wanted to…to see how you were doing. I Just…I just don't want to be alone right now, brother, that's all." Said Mob

"What's wrong?" asked Ritsu. He could see her aura, and her, somewhat. It wasn't that dark in his room, there was still the ambient light of the outside world. Sho had left the curtains opened after he left.

"I just….I just…" said Mob. She couldn't tell her brother this. She couldn't tell ANYONE this.

"Who hurt you? I'll kill him." said Ritsu meaning it.

"Nobody hurt me! I just…" said Mob

"You can tell me and I'll-" said Ritsu

"How would you feel if Sho slept with someone else?" asked Mob. She didn't want to talk about it and she also did. Maybe…maybe if she could just find a way to get the words out…or maybe she should just keep it to herself…but it had only been a few hours and the guilt was eating her alive! She'd be crazy by tomorrow morning! She needed to….maybe Serizawa would forgive her….not likely. Not likely because he loved her…and she loved him…right?

"….what….?" asked Ritsu. What….what? WHAT? Where in the hell had that come from? Why would she even bring it up? First of all Sho would never even think of beginning to think about anything even in the same hemisphere as THAT and secondly how did she think he would feel?!

"I was just…it's nothing. I just-" said Mob wringing her hands together. That was dumb and she was dumb and she needed to accept that she was dumb.

"Serizawa cheated on you?" asked Ritsu, his voice lower than Mob had ever heard it before. She could see his aura. It was brighter than hers, it had never been the bright before. She felt his aura. Murderous intent. True murderous intent, and she had fought enough Claw guys to know what murderous intent felt like. Mob held him down with her powers, he pushed against her. The house began to shake.

"Brother! No! He didn't do anything wrong…..really….I'm…I-" said Mob. The house still shook. Ritsu stopped struggling, he just stared.

"No you didn't." said Ritsu. It sounded like his sister was trying to tell him that she had cheated on someone…he knew which someone….but she didn't. This was his sister. His sister would never, ever, ever do something like that….even if the guy was a million year old former shut-in/body guard to a guy who thought he was a supervillain…

"I don't know-" said Mob before there was a knock on Ritsu's door.

"You two need to stop…whatever it is that you're doing and go to bed. You have school in the morning!" said their mom before behind Ritsu's door. Oh, right…the house. Mob and Ritsu both looked at each other. They were both responsible for the way the house was shaking.

Two auras dulled.

The house stopped shaking.

Then the whispering commenced.

"If he did anything to hurt you I'll kill him…and don't tell me that I'm being overprotective." Said Ritsu when he heard the door to his parents' room open and shut.

"You are, Ritsu, you are. I just….I'm sorry I woke you up. I'm going to be now, goodnight." Said Mob. She climbed out of her brother's bed and went to her own room. She ignored him whispering at her to come back. She had to get herself sorted, that was all. She wanted to tell someone, anyone, because the guilt was crushing her like the time when she got those skyscrapers thrown at her but worse, so much worse.

But telling someone wouldn't make it better. She'd feel better for the moment but then someone else would know.

She could not have that.

But what was she supposed to do? Master Reigen was in love with her and she was in love with him but she was Serizawa's girlfriend and Master Reigen knew that she was Serizawa's girlfriend but he still did that with her anyways even though cheating was wrong but she hadn't been thinking at all about what was right and what was wrong, just what felt good.

She hadn't been thinking about Serizawa at all.

But now she was. She was and she needed…she wanted him to forgive her. She wanted to tell him…so that he could forgive her. Then they could carry on with their…relationship...because she loved him…and that was what she wanted to tell him. Because she wanted his forgiveness.

Or he'd want to break up.

But she didn't want that. She couldn't want that. She loved him and he loved her and when she grew up she was going to have to marry him and they'd be happy. That was what he wanted and that was what she had to give to her. Master Reigen was wrong. She was not using him. She cared about him.

But she loved Master Reigen.

When she thought of her life with Master Reigen it didn't' feel like a list of things that she had to do. She looked forward to it. A lifetime with someone who didn't smother her. Someone who didn't treat her like she was made of glass. Someone who didn't just do what she wanted to do all the time and leave her to try and figure out what he wanted. Someone who loved her. Someone who she loved in return.

She was in her room now, still in her school uniform. It just felt…she wanted to wear it. If she wore it then it would still be today. If she took it off then it would be tomorrow and she'd have so much to figure out like she was trying to figure it out now but if it was today then she could at least think about other things like the way Master Reigen felt and sounded and tasted and smelled and how amazing it was and how much she wanted to do it again.

But she couldn't do it again.

Could she?

Cheating was wrong, she knew this. She also knew a saying that went something like 'what you don't know can't hurt you' or something like that. The other her, the other Shigeko, was telling her that.

**We can have what we want.**

_No we can't._

**Why not?**

_Because it's wrong to hurt people like that._

**But it feels good.**

_I know._

**So why not continue to feel good?**

_Because I feel bad._

**You have no reason to.**

_Yes I do. I did a bad thing and now I have to say sorry._

**Nothing that felt that good could possibly be bad.**

The other her had a point. It had felt good. It had felt so good…but in feeling good she had also hurt someone she loved. But he didn't know so he couldn't be hurt by it. But he would find out eventually. Not if she didn't tell him. But she had to tell him, she was his girlfriend and cheating was wrong. But she had wanted to be with Master Reigen for longer than she had wanted to be with Serizawa. But Serizawa loved her and cherished her and wanted to be with her for the rest of his life. Master Reigen wanted…what did he want? He said that he wanted to be with her but not in the grown up forever sort of way that Serizawa wanted, and that was much easier for Mob.

But a promise was a promise and in promising to be Serizawa's girlfriend she had also promised not to cheat on him.

But what he didn't know couldn't hurt him.

She really didn't know what to do besides lay herself down onto her futon in her school uniform and try to drag out the last remaining moments of today for as long as possible.

Reigen had tried to make the last moment of the previous day end as quickly as possible.

After Mob left suddenly he was left with several problems, many of them emotional. That entire night had been an out of control rollercoaster. He hadn't set off to sleep with Mob. He didn't even know how he had gotten from getting dinner to-to taking her right there on that goddamned couch. Now he had to live with himself and what he had done with her, to her.

And it had been to.

She deserved so much better than what he could be and he knew this and now she knew this and she probably wanted nothing at all to do with him anymore. He didn't blame her. What girl imaged the first time she ever shared herself with someone to be…that. Sex with her almost thirty year old…he had no idea what he even was to Mob anymore….she hadn't wanted it that way. He should have taken her home…his home was a shoebox…or to somewhere nice, like that love hotel…but she wasn't just some cheap-

She deserved better.

He tried not to think about that. He tried not to go over every moment of that night in his mind. The way she felt and smelled and sounded and looked and tasted. The complete and total trust that she had put in him, and wasn't she always? Wasn't she always putting her trust in him and wasn't he always breaking it? The story of their entire relationship up to this point.

He tried to avoid all thoughts about that night. He tried and he failed. In trying he decided that he needed to focus on his most immediate, non-emotional, problem. The office was in shambles. Everything was upside-down, inside out, and slightly to the left. There was potting soil everywhere. There were papers everywhere, the filing system was in shambles. The furniture, everything but the couch, had been thrown around and Reigen hoped to God that his landlord didn't start asking questions. There was no up or down or left or right to the mess and it seemed so insurmountable and Reigen wondered, briefly, if he ought to just buy a snow shovel and push the mess out the door and let it become someone else's problem but the mess was his problem and it was his mess to clean up and he had to clean it up so he started to.

Then he found the bottle of sake he kept in his bottom desk drawer.

Then the rest of the night got kind of hazy.

At some point he made his way to the massage/curse removal/yoga/ meditation/nap room.

Then tomorrow happened.

Serizawa's first thought, the first thing that came to mind when he came into work that morning, was something along the lines of 'OH MY GOD WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!' followed by a panicked burst of psychic power that probably ended up destroying any evidence that the robber had left behind. Everything was a mess. They had even moved the furniture around. This was bad. Who would do something like this? Robbers, obviously. Someone had robbed them and now they didn't have any more money and then they'd well Reigen, would starve and end up homeless because Serizawa still had his money from when he was working for Claw and his mother would take him in if he did run out of money and obviously he'd support Mob, too, because she was his girlfriend but Master Reigen had nobody to take care of him but that was ok because he had Serizawa and of course Serizawa would take care of his best non girlfriend friend and-

He needed to stop thinking and calm down.

But how could he calm down? They had been robbed and Reigen lost his livelihood and-and-and what if something had happened to him and-Mob! What if something had happened to Mob! Wait, no, she was fine. She must have been. She had to be fine because if she wasn't then he had failed at protecting her and also whoever did this could hurt her and she was the most powerful esper alive and who could hurt the most powerful esper alive and-

Another burst of psychic energy.

Then a groan from the other room.

For a moment Serizawa thought that it was whoever did this and he was ready to, well, a lot of things that he knew that Mob would never approve of which of course got him all conflicted because on the one hand he loved her more than anything else in the world but on the other hand he would do whatever it took to protect her and-

"Mob? Is that you?" he heard Master Reigen before saw him. He was in just an undershirt and his slacks. His eyes were cloudy and bloodshot. He clutched the walls as he walked. Serizawa rushed over as fast as he could. What if Reigen was hurt? What if he was dying? What if-?!

"Oh…hey. It's that time again, isn't it?" asked Reigen. His mouth tasted like an ashtray. A pukey ashtray. He needed to find his shirt and coat and tie and get started with the day. He ignored Serizawa's questions as he began to search. He stepped in something. Potting soil again? He had at least gotten that cleaned up last night. The room hadn't looked THIS bad last night….had it?

"….and I'm sorry I wasn't here to keep you safe but I'm here now and-" said Serizawa as he hovered around Reigen, his powers ready to catch Reigen if his unsteady feet should fail him. Luckily they did not.

"Serizawa. Space. Please." Said Reigen as he liberated his button down from behind an overturned bookshelf.

"I'm sorry. I was…I was just worried about you! You just seem a little sick, that all…not that there's anything wrong with the way you look, just that you don't look alright. I was worried that they, whoever robbed us, had hurt you. That's all. They just did a lot of damage. I hope it was worth it for them, it's not like you keep a lot of money around. What did they tale, anyway? It just seems like a big mess to me. Did they take get everything from the safe?" asked Serizawa

"Who?" asked Reigen with a groan.

"Whoever it was that robbed us, Reigen, and made this mess." Said Serizawa. He used his powers to button Reigen's shirt for him. Normally Reigen would have been embarrassed, he was a grown man after all, but right now his hands weren't listening. Nothing was listening.

"Nobody robbed us." Said Reigen as his shirt was finished being buttoned. He began to hunt around for his suit coat.

"Oh. Then they just randomly vandalized us?" asked Serizawa as he used his powers to steady Reigen.

"There was no 'they' and can we please stop playing twenty questions?" Said Reigen

"Oh. You think that this was all just one person? I mean, I think that this had to be a lot of people. Maybe they just sent one person and then-" said Serizawa

"No. There was no 'they' this was…God I fucked up…" said Reigen. He found his suit coat under a pile of books. He pulled it out and shook it off.

"….you did this?" asked Serizawa. Reigen wasn't hurt. Serizawa had seen this before. The smell of the alcohol, the way Reigen was moving…he was hung over. Reigen had gotten drunk and done this? Why? Did he even know? Some people had no control over themselves when they got drunk, Serizawa thanked God that he wasn't one of them, so maybe that was what happened to Reigen.

"Yes…I guess…I don't know! I'm not in the mood to play twenty questions, ok?" said Reigen as he turned a comfy chair right side up and threw himself down onto it.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" said Serizawa. He racked his brain for what to do to help Reigen. He needed water! Yes, water. Something to eat. To brush his teeth, too, because he smelled like he had thrown up at some point. A list of immediate tasks was good, something that he could do. Less to worry about that way.

"No, it's fine. It's fine." Said Reigen, his head still in his hands. He could hear things moving about the room on their own. He felt the familiar tingle, kind of like static electricity, of psychic powers doing their work.

"Stay here, I'll make you some tea and I'll find the office snacks and the mini toothbrush and toothpaste." Said Serizawa. He cleaned up the room, too. Well he did his best. He wasn't as good at splitting his focus as Mob was. If she were there the room would have been cleaned up in a snap. She was more powerful than him, and had better control. She knew Reigen better, too. She would know what he needed beyond what was immediate and physical.

Reigen didn't move. He just let the world move around him. He sat still, very still. His head was still in his hands. He could feel the floor dip and creak as Serizawa walked past and put the furniture back to some approximation of what it was. He heard the tap running in the bathroom and a cup was put in one hand and a toothbrush with an unnecessary amount of toothpaste on it was put in the other. More things clanked and clattered as the room was restored back to factory settings.

He wondered how he could do the same for his and Mob's relationship.

If there even was a way.

"Reigen, here, you should brush your teeth. Oh, and I found some cookies, too. Brush your teeth and then eat something and drink something. It'll help with your hang over." Said Serizawa

"You can tell I'm hung over?" asked Reigen. Of course Serizawa could. Reigen knew that he must have looked and smelled like it, that was for sure. Serizawa wasn't Mob, he was a grown adult and he would know what a hang over looked like.

"Yes…I mean it seems like you are. Here, drink something and eat something. It'll help." Said Serizawa

"You're a good guy, you know that? You come in and find your boss hung over and this is what you do? You clean everything up and you try to take care of him. Most other people would have just noped right out of here. Not their problem. Not your problem." Said Reigen

"Well you're not just my boss. You're my friend, too." Said Serizawa. There was a moment of silence before Reigen took a drink of water.

"You're my friend too. You're my best fucking friend, you know that?" asked Reigen. Serizawa was his only friend so by default the guy was his best friend.

"Really? But what about Mob?" asked Serizawa. Reigen began to brush his teeth, just to give himself time to answer. He finished up and Serizawa took it back to the bathroom with his powers. He heard the tap running and then a drawer opening and shutting. Mob could do that too, move things around without looking at them.

"Mob…I fucked up." Said Reigen. He needed to tell someone. He just needed to get this off his chest and Serizawa was his best friend and the guy had no room to judge anyway and Reigen just needed to tell someone, anyone, because maybe then it would be less for him to deal with on his own.

"Oh. Did she do this? I mean, if you had a fight then I could see her losing control. Don't worry, I'll talk to her and I'll see if she's still mad and then-" said Serizawa. He had never seen her lose control, well in a bad way, but…it did feel like her in here. A lot like her. Well it always felt a lot like her but now it felt A LOT like her.

"She hates me…" said Reigen. She did. She must have. He would the himself, too, if he were in her position. He took something that should have been one of, if the not the, best moments of her life and ruined it.

"Mob couldn't hate anyone. Sometimes she can get mad at people but even that's rare. I'm sure that she's fine." Said Serizawa trying his best to calm Reigen down.

"Suddenly you're an expert…." Muttered Reigen

"What?" asked Serizawa

"Just because you hang out with her for a few hours every so often you think you know her?" asked Reigen. Serizawa didn't know her, nobody knew her, not like Reigen knew her. She could and would just walk away. She had done it before and over much less.

"I hope that I know her. I mean, I hope that I know her as well as one person can know another." Said Serizawa. That sounded a little mean but Reigen must have just been in a bad mood. Of course Serizawa knew his own girlfriend. He knew her and he knew that she was a good person. She had even forgiven the president for what he did. If she could forgive a man like that then she could forgive Reigen. She was a very forgiving person. She had even forgiven him for when they first met….she was a very good person like that.

"Well you don't. You don't know her. Not like I know her." said Reigen. He had no idea, none, that Mob was just using him. He sounded like…like he had feelings for Mob, there…which he very well probably did.

"Alright, you've known her for longer." Said Serizawa. OK, Reigen was trying to hurt him. It was just because he was hung over and grumpy. As soon as he felt better they could get back to normal.

"Damn straight I have. I've known her since she was eleven…and then I…oh God I can't believe that I-" said Reigen running his hands through his hair. Serizawa was still there, still looking at him with the goddamned concerned look…

"What happened? You can tell me, you might even feel better if you do." Said Serizawa. Why would they fight? Mob told him the story of the time that she and Reigen went their separate ways. They had gotten into a fight and Reigen said some very mean things. He could say very mean things sometimes, she had said, and that was why Serizawa was trying to take all of this with a grain of salt.

"You'll hate me if I tell you, I know you will, or maybe you won't. It's not like you have any room to be throwing stones. How old is your girlfriend, anyway? You never said." Said Reigen. He wasn't the fucked up one. Serizawa was just as fucked up as he was. He was not alone on his island of fucked up-ness.

"….she's fifteen, remember?" asked Serizawa. How could Reigen forget how old Mob was? That was why he rejected her, the age thing. Not that Serizawa minded the age thing, not at all.

"…no….I would have remembered if you told me that…well at least we're in the same boat, you and I. Aren't we just?" asked Reigen

"What do you mean?" asked Serizawa. Could he still be drunk? That was always a possibility, a big possibility….

"Your girlfriend is Mob's age…we are both so fucked up…" said Reigen. Fifteen. Well he felt a little better about himself, now. Just a little. Of course Serizawa had an excuse, his upbringing and all. Reigen had no such excuse. He had a mother and father who loved him and had led a fully and mostly normal life.

"I don't understand." Said Serizawa. Reigen was making sense to himself and only himself. This must have been how Mob felt when she talked to people. Of course he was not Mob and he could tell, though, that Reigen was obviously drunk or something and that was why he wasn't making any sense. It was Reigen, not Serizawa.

"We're both dating fifteen year old girls. Sheesh! It's like talking to Mob!" said Reigen. The guy seriously had no idea why it was wrong to date someone over half his age. Of course he wouldn't. He had an excuse. Reigen didn't. He had no excuse for what he did.

"Oh. I didn't know that you were seeing someone….congratulations!" Said Serizawa. Was that why he and Mob fought? Was she…was she jealous of whoever Reigen's girlfriend was? The thought makes his heart hurt, like someone poked him there with a sewing needle. Long and sharp and painful.

"Yeah, congratulations…." Said Reigen bitterly. Of course Serizawa would be happy for him. The man had no concept of what was and was not socially appropriate. No, that was mean, he was a lot better than when he started. But then again he was openly dating a teenage girl.

"I mean it, I'm so happy for you!" said Serizawa. This was a good thing, even if Mob was probably jealous and upset right now. If he had his own girlfriend then there was no chance that Mob would ever try to…not that she would. She would never do that to him. She loved him. She loved him and she would never, ever, ever do anything like that to him.

"Yeah…you're the only one…" said Reigen

"I'm sure that Mob will be happy, too, when she stops being upset. I guess she's just a little…" said Serizawa. Mob had obviously been jealous. She was jealous that Reigen was seeing someone, jealous enough to fight…but she was his and his alone. She was.

"Don't." said Reigen

"Don't what?" asked Serizawa

"Talk about Mob like you're some expert. You're not, ok? She's just…" said Reigen. She was just using him. The truth would devastate Serizawa. Not that he had any right to be devastated. He already had a girlfriend. What did he need Reigen's for? If Mob was even still his…

"She's just what?" asked Serizawa. There was an edge to his voice that he knew that he should get rid of. He knew that he shouldn't get mad at Reigen. Reigen was just trying to push his buttons, that was all. But he was an expert in all things Mob. He knew everything about her. Her favorite things…foods, shows, colors, songs, candies, mangas, classes, actual books, things that he was most certainly not going to share with Reigen….he knew Mob. Reigen might have known her for longer but Serizawa knew her…better. In ways that Reigen never could. He knew that when she brushed her hair she stared at the left and moved her way across. He knew that she always kicked her socks off when she went to bed. He knew that she liked having her hair touched while she relaxed. He knew just how to touch her to get her to make the most delicious mewing sounds. He knew…he knew a lot of things about her.

"Nothing. Everything. I don't know. I don't know how to tell you or what to tell or-or-or anything! Ok!" said Reigen

"Tell me what?" asked Serizawa. He was curious, mostly, because people tended to become very honest when they were drunk, as he suspected that Reigen still was.

"Mob." Said Reigen

"What about Mob?" asked Serizawa. What was there to know about Mob? He wished that he could just call her or text her or something but she was at school right now and she wasn't allowed to be on her phone while she was at school and he didn't want to get her into trouble.

"What's with you and Mob?" asked Reigen switching gears. He was not in the same boat as Serizawa. It was one thing to be in love with a fifteen year old girl, it was another to cheat on one fifteen year old girl with another fifteen year old girl and oh God was that how low the bar was in his life now!?

"What do you mean?" asked Serizawa. She was his girlfriend, that was all. Reigen knew that she was his girlfriend.

"I mean what is going on with you and her? And something is going on, I have eyes, you know. Something is happening between you and Mob, or at least you seem to want something to happen between you and Mob. Is your girlfriend really alright with you spending so much time with her?" asked Reigen

"…..I don't understand? Do you mean something philosophical or metaphorical or-?" asked Serizawa

"I mean is your girlfriend ok with the fact that you so obviously have a crush on Mob?" asked Reigen

"I really don't follow." Said Serizawa shaking his head. He didn't have a crush on Mob, he was on love with her and she with him. He wasn't half as good with words as Reigen was but this was just too complicated for even the most seasoned wordsmith to follow.

"Do I have to spell it out with for you?" asked Reigen through gritted, gritty, teeth.

"Yes, please, because I have no idea what you're getting at!" said Serizawa coming dangerously close to losing his temper. Now who was the one playing twenty questions?

"You're trying to fuck Mob!" said Reigen loudly, too loudly. Serizawa hoped that nobody else had heard him.

"….not the word I would use…" muttered Serizawa. The words he would use were making love, because they were, or having sex if he was being clinical, or engaging in adult relations if his mother was asking intrusive questions again. Fucking was just such a…base…way to put it. Like they were just rolling around together instead of sharing the most beautiful and intimate of all human experiences together.

"What word would you use then? For trying to cheat on your girlfriend I mean." Said Reigen. He was not worse than Serizawa. Reigen meant it when he told Mob he loved her. He would never try and two time her.

"I. Would. Never." Said Serizawa. He was holding onto his umbrella now. Reigen had climbed to his feet a while ago. Serizawa was getting close, very close, to doing something that he knew he would end up regretting.

"Then why are you spending so much time with her? Why do you keep touching her and talking to her and picking her up? Why do you keep on staring at her when you think she's not looking? When she is? Why do you let her stare back? Why do you let her-her-her WHAT IS GOING ON BETWEEN YOU TWO?!" said Reigen

"She's my girlfriend. That's how you act with someone when you're in a relationship. At least I think so, I've never been with anyone else before. Just her. There's nothing going on between us but that." Said Serizawa not at all understanding what Reigen was getting at.

"….what about your girlfriend?" asked Reigen. He must have been hallucinating, yes, that was it. He was hallucinating and this was all his imagination. There was no way that Serizawa said what Reigen just heard.

"She IS my girlfriend. Mob IS my girlfriend. I love her and she loved me. I love Shigeko Kageyama." Said Serizawa before he was punched in the face.


	17. Fighting Hearts

Serizawa didn't think, he just reacted.

And that was how Reigen found himself flung into a wall.

There was a loud thud and a sizable dent in the wall. The office shook, a little, with the force of it. Reigen was still and for a moment Serizawa was twelve again and that was his mother laying crimpled up on the ground. He couldn't move, he couldn't think. His umbrella fell from his hand and rolled away.

"You….bastard…" said Reigen as he laid on the ground. His entire side hurt but nothing felt broken.

"Reigen! Stay still!" said Serizawa. That was not his mother, she would never call him something like that first of all, and he was not twelve. He was thirty one years old, far too old for this. To lose control like that. To react without thinking.

Reigen had hit him.

Reigen was obviously not in his right state of mind and Serizawa needed to be a good friend and help him through whatever this was.

Reigen had hit him.

It didn't matter, lots of people had hit him. Hell, even Mob had hit him when they first met. Well he had hit her but that was not the point. The point was that yes, Reigen had hit him, but he had also hit Reigen and he was the sober one so it was on him to apologize and this would most certainly not be a friendship killer at all.

"You mother fucking bastard…" said Reigen not listening to Serizawa at all. He tried to get up. He put his weight on his hands and pushed up until he was on his hands and knees. Serizawa rushed over and tried to get him still. Reigen put all of his weight on his left and used his right to shove him away.

That bastard.

That backstabbing bastard.

That mother fucking backstabbing bastard.

Mob.

His Mob.

Serizawa had stolen Mob from him.

HIS Mob.

"Are you alright? Did I hurt you? Oh no…I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry Reigen!" said Serizawa. Reigen had hit him first but Serizawa was the one who threw him into a wall. No. No. Not again. Not again. He was…he could feel himself starting to lose control. He needed to calm down.

Mob.

He thought of her. Her presence. Her smiles. That steady way that she spoke, not a monotone at all, just steady. Calm comforting. Mob who was always there for him and who always would be there for him. Mob who loved him and who would never, ever, have wanted him to do something like this. To hurt someone she cared about. To hurt someone that they both cared about.

"No you're not…" said Reigen pushing himself into a shaky stand. His entire side hurt but it wasn't broken. His hand hurt, too. Never punch a man in the face, his head is harder than your hand. Some of the best advice he ever got but chose to ignore. Serizawa was standing there, one arm hovering around him, the other playing with his pant leg nervously. There was a trail of blood leading form his nose and down onto his white button down. He either didn't notice or didn't care.

"I am! I am so sorry! I didn't meant to hurt you! I just reacted, that was all. But it's alright! I forgive you for hitting me, really I do. Now come on, I can take you to the clinic or the hospital or-" said Serizawa

"You're not sorry….how could you…just how could you?" asked Reigen. He could practically see the energy cracking around Serizawa. No matter. He had punched the most powerful man on Earth in the face before. Brute force. As powerful as Serizawa was he was still a man. The man who had stolen the only good thing in Reigen's life out from under him.

He hit Serizawa again. This time in the eye socket.

"Stop hitting me!" said Serizawa. He reacted, again, and used his powers to pin Reigen to the wall. That hurt! That really hurt! He could feel the blood, drops of it hitting his chest…or maybe that was just his nose. He reached up and felt his eye. It was just the side but it was tender to the touch. Warm. Already starting to swell.

"No! I will not stop hitting you! I won't! You just…how could you!?" said Reigen. He fought against the sheer weight pushing him into the wall. Serizawa was looking at him like he was crazy. Like he was the one who had…Reigen wasn't doing anything wrong. You did not steal another man's girlfriend. You did not date another man's girlfriend in secret right under his nose. You did not ask another man, to his face, for advice on how to steal said girlfriend.

Serizawa had stolen his girlfriend.

Serizawa fucking Katsuya had stolen Mob from him.

"What did I do? I just said…Reigen, you're not well…you're not well at all. I don't know what I did or what you think I did but…but whatever it was…we can work it out when you're sober." Said Serizawa. He was still pinning Reigen to the wall without even thinking about it. He willed his powers to let Reigen go. It took them a moment to listen. Reigen was still…he was not a threat. He was Serizawa's best friend. Sometimes friends fought, that was all. Sometimes even the best of friends could fight and that was ok. They were adults and they could work it out.

Whatever it was they could work it out.

"You know what you did!" said Reigen. This time he got Serizawa in the stomach. Serizawa, of course, doubled over in pain but made no move what so ever to defend himself. He willed his powers not to, fought against every instinct that he had. He had to. For Reigen's sake. He could easily end up seriously hurting, if not outright killing, his best friend. He wasn't a child anymore. He was bigger and stronger and his powers were bigger and stronger.

"If I did I would not be asking!" said Serizawa as he held his stomach. Then he was shoved, hard, and fell onto his back. He tried to keep it together but the floor beneath him began to shake and the ceiling above him filled with spider cracks.

"Get up! Just get up! You can't do this! You cannot just sit there looking so-so-so-ugh! Just get up already!" said Reigen. Serizawa was just sitting there looking up at Reigen with his eyes full of confusion and betrayal. Why? He was the one who betrayed Reigen, the one person who honestly helped him rejoin society, and now this was what he did?

Serizawa stole Mob from him.

Mob. Stolen.

Gone.

Not his.

Serizawa's.

"You're…you are not well…." Said Serizawa. Reigen wasn't in his right state of mind. He just had to keep on reminding himself of that fact. That was what mattered.

"I'm not well? I'M NOT WELL?! You're the one who's…how could you? After all I did for you this is how you repay me?" asked Reigen

"What did I do!? What did I do to make you this angry!?" said Serizawa. He couldn't stop himself and Reigen toppled to the ground under the sheer weight of…not enough to kill a man. That was what mattered. Serizawa hadn't actually killed him with his powers…just shoved him down…

He was not supposed to use his powers against other people anymore.

"Mob!" said Reigen. The only word that he could think of. This was about Mob. This was about him stealing Mob. About him having had stolen Mob from him for…weeks. Weeks and weeks of this…right under Reigen's nose. Mob. He had stolen Mob and…and he had…they had…

Serizawa fucked Mob.

"What about her? Are you…are you upset because she's my-?" asked Serizawa

"Don't you dare open your mother fucking mouth and tell me she's your girlfriend. She's…she is not YOUR GIRLFRIEND!" said Reigen. He hit the wall this time, the same hand that he used to start this fight with Serizawa. It throbbed. He could feel bruises forming on the side of his body where he hit the wall initially. At least he looked better than Serizawa. The entire front of his button down was covered in blood, his eye was starting to swell up, and he looked like he was on the verge of tears. Good. That was what he deserved.

"Yes she is! She is and I don't know why you're acting like this. She's been my girlfriend for weeks, Reigen, I told you when she and I first started going out together." Said Serizawa. He tried to wipe his eyes, he knew that he was starting to cry, but just felt himself smearing blood on his face. Reigen at least wasn't bleeding…but Serizawa had hurt him. Reigen didn't deserve that.

"Katsuya…I think that I would have remembered if you told me that you were fucking Mob. I sincerely think that this is not the sort of information that would just slip my mind." Said Reigen through gritted teeth. They were both on the ground now, sitting across from each other. Serizawa still held his stomach. Reigen was slumped against the wall. He wanted to crawl over there and literally murder Serizawa but he couldn't. Aside from murder being against the law he didn't have the strength. The pain in his side was getting worse.

"Arataka…I'm sorry. I thought that I told you…I did tell you! I told you when she became my girlfriend…but I guess that I forgot to tell you who she was…so I'm sorry…but why do you keep on trying to fight with me? I don't want us to fight, Reigen, you're my friend…" said Serizawa

"Friend? If this is what you do to your friends I'd hate to see what you do to people who don't like." Said Reigen

"You hit me first! I didn't mean to hit you with my umbrella! I just…I wasn't thinking and then I hit you and I'm sorry." Said Serizawa

"You think this is about you hitting me with your goddamned umbrella? You seriously think that this is about that?" asked Reigen

"I have no idea what this is about! You just hit me! But I am sorry that I hit you and I wish that you would believe me." Said Serizawa

"This is about Mob! You and Mob!" said Reigen

"What about Mob and I? She's my girlfriend. I wasn't trying to keep it from you, I thought that you already knew." Said Serizawa

"Knew….? Knew!? How in the hell….why would you think that I had any idea….? She is not your girlfriend!" said Reigen

"She is! She's my girlfriend! Why won't you believe me?" asked Serizawa

"Because you're you." Said Reigen. Now he was trying to hurt Serizawa. To hurt him like he was hurting Reigen. Serizawa and Mob…no. Something was going on between them but not…no. This was not happening. This was not happening! Serizawa and Mob….so he hurt Serizawa. He hurt Serizawa to get him to shut up about it. To see the absurdity of that statement.

"What do you mean?" asked Serizawa through clenched teeth. He knew what Reigen meant. He asked himself the very same question each and every day. Why him? What did someone as amazing as her see in someone as…as nothing as him?

Reigen could see it too.

His best friend.

"Mob is not your girlfriend and she has no reason to be…she's not. She is not yours." Said Reigen

"She doesn't belong to anyone but we are together. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear but it's the truth. I know that I don't deserve her but she…she still loves me." Said Serizawa

"Don't. Don't say that. I swear to God is you say that one more time….just don't say that…" said Reigen. His insides were full of rapidly hardening cement, that was what he felt like. Something hit him on the head. Not potting soil this time, no, it was tomorrow and this time is was a piece of plaster. Oh.

"Why do you even care? You said that you weren't even the slightest bit interested in her because of how young she is. You said that you had no interest in dating her. You even rejected her. You rejected her and now you're acting like…like you have…but you don't want to be with her! You told me that you don't want to be with her!" said Serizawa. Reigen did not have feelings for Mob. He had someone now…unless it was Mob….but that was insane. Mob would never, ever, ever do anything like that. She was happy with Serizawa. She loved Serizawa. She had said so…so many times….because it was the truth!

Right?

"I was LYING! Obviously I was doing what I do best and lying!" said Reigen. Serizawa made a noise somewhere between a choke and a gasp.

"You…you have feelings for her too?" asked Serizawa. It hurt but…it was ok. They were friends and they could work through this. So they were both in love with the same perfect, amazing, cute, girl. That was fine. They were all adults, there. They could work it out like adults.

"I love her. I actually love her, Serizawa. She and I have been through so much shit…for years. We've been together for years and…yes. I love her. I can admit it to myself that I love her. Actual love. You can't love her. You barely know her. At best this is a crush. At BEST." Said Reigen. Mob was his. He didn't know when, exactly, he had developed feelings for Mob but he had them for a while. Since that awful day when she had to save the world. When he tried to save her with a toy gun and a lot of lies. Maybe before that. Maybe when they went their separate ways and he realized just how much she meant to him. Even before that. When they fought Claw for the first time. When she had been so cornered that she was considering fighting, even killing, people in order to save everyone…when she leant him his power…when she trusted him so completely…

He loved her.

"Don't. Don't say that. I love her. You have no idea….she saved me. She saved me! She saved me in every way a person can be saved!" said Serizawa. He had known her less than a year. Hell, when she turned fifteen he knew so little about her that he had gotten her a doll because he knew that girls liked them. He knew her now. He had seen memories of hers, feelings, friendship, but as a person he knew little about her then. He knew her now. Not for nearly as long as Reigen had known her for but he did know her. What made her smile, what made her frown, what she liked to do, what she didn't much care for, her favorite foods, shows, songs, movies, games….he knew her.

He knew her and he loved her.

"She saved all of us, Katsuya. She saved the entire world that day. You weren't special." Said Reigen. That was it. That was Serizawa's big reason for stealing Mob from him. For trying to steal Mob from him. For thinking that he had stolen Mob from him.

Mob was his. Mob loved him, Reigen Arataka, and she was his. She had said so. She had told him so not even twelve hours ago on that goddamned mother fucking office couch while she came harder than she ever had at any point in her life.

Mob was his.

"No just then…she showed me what it meant to actually…to actually have friends….and a life. She was the reason I left. She was. If she hadn't been there who knows what I could have become. She saved me in every way a person can be saved and I love her. I may not have known for as long as you have but I do love her. I love the way she smiles a little, the corners of her mouth turn up, when she's reading something or thinking about something that she likes. I love the way that she eats, always from right to left. That's the same way she brushes her hair, too, and her teeth. I love the way she'll sometimes walk around in just one sock because she knows that if she doesn't keep it on she'll lose it like she lost the other one. I-I love the way she's really quiet but then sometimes if you get her talking she'll just go on and on about the things she loves. She knows so much about EVA…cats too. She loves cats. I love the way her aura looks when she's relaxed, really relaxed. I love the way she smells when she just gets up…and I have no idea why! I love the way she realizes how amazing she is but she still stays with me even though I'm not, and I know I'm not. I love-love the way that she just…looks at me like I'm…everything." Said Serizawa. He wiped his eyes again. She was his everything and…and of course Reigen would realize how amazing she was. He would forgive Reigen for hitting him, he would have done the same in Reigen's positon.

Maybe.

He loved her and if another man had her while he felt the sheer depth of feeling that he felt for her now…he didn't know what he would do.

"How in the hell…?" asked Reigen. How did Serizawa know this much about Mob. Reigen knew how Serizawa knew, he just didn't want to know how Serizawa knew. Serizawa knew because he had been…with Mob…for weeks and weeks and weeks. He knew things about her that Reigen didn't…all the little intimacies that he and Mob had never shared. What had they shared?

Life and death situations. Quiet afternoons in this office. Countless meals together. Her first kiss. Her first time.

But not really.

"Because I love her. I may not have known her for years like you have but I love her. She's the person I care about most in the world. I understand that you love her too, she's perfect, and I forgive you for hitting me. You're just jealous-" said Serizawa. Reigen was just jealous and that was why he, well, went a little crazy there.

"I slept with Mob last night." Said Reigen. He needed to knock Serizawa down to his level. They were both sitting on the ground but he needed to get Serizawa lower. Let him know how this felt. Let him know how it felt when the person who you loved most in the world, the person you would die for, the person you would take a toy gun and kill for, shared herself with someone else.

"…..you're lying again. She would never do that to me. You're just upset and maybe drunk and you're just-" said Serizawa. That was absurd and Reigen needed a doctor or a therapist or something because that statement had zero basis in any reality.

"You're not special. You're a rebound." Said Reigen. Serizawa needed to feel what he was feeling right now. He looked across the room and didn't see the man who saved his life, didn't see his best and only adult friend, he just saw the man who had tried to take the love of his life from him. That was who Mob was. He had never loved anyone in his life like he loved her. Had never wanted to be with someone so totally, honestly, and completely as he did her.

"….what…?" asked Serizawa, his voice breaking for the first time in decades.

"A rebound. She only started all of this with you after I rejected her. If I had just given in to what she wanted, what we both wanted, instead of trying to protect her from…but I made a mistake and then she went to you." Said Reigen

"You're lying." Said Serizawa. Mob loved him. Mob cared about him. Not just because Reigen had told her no. That couldn't have possibly been the truth.

"You could have been literally anyone." Said Reigen

"No…" said Serizawa

"You could have been any guy off the street." Said Reigen

"Stop…" said Serizawa

"I mean, think about it? Why else would she, all of a sudden, just throw herself at you?" asked Reigen

"Stop it…" said Serizawa. He closed his eyes. He could feel his powers crackling around him. The entire building began to shake in it's foundations.

"That's why she didn't say it back. I remember you told me, weeks ago, that your girlfriend didn't say it back. Why would she? Do you really think that's how she pictured it? Her first time? Do you really think that you're who she pictured it with?" asked Reigen. He didn't care that he could see Serizawa's aura. He didn't care that the entire building was shaking like they were in an earthquake. He didn't care that Serizawa could, with a flick of his wrist, end him in a second.

"Will you stop it already?! I'm…I'm going to-" said Serizawa. He just needed to keep it together. That was all. Nothing else mattered but keeping it together.

"She doesn't love you. You could have been anyone. You did not steal Mob from me. Mob is not your girlfriend. If you had Mob, if she really loved you, then she would not have spent last night here with me." Said Reigen. He was being mean, he was being meaner than he had ever been to anyone in his life. The last time he could ever remember running his mouth like this, being this mean, was when he and Mob had that idiotic fight…but he was totally in the right here! He was hurt!

"Shut up!" said Serizawa. Then everything went purple.

The office was in shambles.

Reigen didn't know how it got that way. He saw a flash of purple. The sound of wind in his ears. An immense pressure on his body. A crackling, like static electricity. All throughout his body.

Mob had thrown things around and broken a few potted plants. Serizawa has put holes in the walls and the ceiling. The windows were so cracked Reigen prayed that the breeze didn't pick up and finish the job. There were splinters of wood everywhere….a bookshelf had exploded.

All Reigen could do was stare.

Serizawa stared right back.

They held eye contact for a while. Reigen's eye wide, Serizawa's quickly filling with tears.

"I'm so sorry!" said Serizawa before he got up and ran away, pausing only to take his umbrella with him. He ran all the way home covered in blood and debris underneath his umbrella. He needed to get home. That was what he needed. He just needed to get home where it was dark and small and safe. Where everyone could be safe from him.

He hurt Reigen.

Reigen hurt him.

But he hurt Reigen.

But Mob…hurt him.

But it must have been a lie, all of it.

Yes. It must have all been a lie. Mob loved him. Mob loved him and would never, ever, ever do anything to hurt him like that.

Reigen didn't know how long he spent on the floor. At some point he got up to switch the opened sign to closed. No work today.

How could he? Everything was broken if not outright destroyed. Not on purpose. He had pushed Serizawa to this. He had gambled with a loaded gun and lost. He wasn't thinking. He had just wanted to hurt the other man, that was all. Reigen just wanted to show him a glimpse of the pain the Serizawa had caused him to feel.

Mob.

Mob had…how could she? How could she do this to him? She heard 'wait for three years' so she decided to jump onto the first guy who gave her the time of day?! And-AND she didn't say a thing. Not once did she say that she was with Serizawa. She never once said that she was…that she was two timing Serizawa with him. The she was two timing him with Serizawa. That anyone was being two timed at all!

What was she thinking? Was she even thinking? No, she wasn't. If she had put even two seconds worth of thought into the situation, if she had any idea that her actions had consequences…but of course she hadn't. She was fifteen. She was fifteen and didn't think ahead past what she was going to have for dinner. She just knew that she was hurting and she wanted it to stop. She was hurting and horny and she had just jumped into bed with the first person who…who showed up.

And it just happened to be Serizawa.

She just happened to run into Serizawa, someone who of course probably harbored a little crush on her, and then she just happened to end up hanging out with him and then she just happened to end up climbing into bed with him.

Serizawa fucked Mob.

Her first time had been with Serizawa.

She had shared herself with him. With Serizawa. Reigen had…he had been the person that she was two timing….it hadn't been anything for her, had it? She just…she just went to bed with him. She just went to, well the couch, with him. It meant…did it mean anything to her? She told him she loved him.

She told Serizawa she loved him.

Mob said…

Then he got mad. Mad enough at Mob that he wished that he had never met her. Mad enough that he could do anything, anything to hurt her. To make her feel the hurt that he felt. He got out his phone and hovered over her name in his contacts. A picture of her taken years ago. She was happy then, her actual smile, and he could tell when she actually smiled. That little smile she did where all she did was turn up the corners of her mouth. He loved that smile. He loved that girl. He loved her.

He wanted to yell at her, to tell her off, to make her feel even a fraction of what he felt. But he didn't. He couldn't. He still…he still loved her. He loved her but he was angry with her and he knew that first thing she would do when she left school as come here and see all of this and then…or she'd just go straight to Serizawa since she loved him so very much…she'd go to him and he'd probably be a total mess and she'd feel bad for him, because she must have felt bad for him, it wasn't just that he had been there, she must have just felt bad for him and bad for herself and just…yeah.

She could and would go to Serizawa.

But not if he made that impossible.

He acted out of anger, out of hurt, out of betrayal. That was all. He still loved her but…but he still wanted some sort of…revenge? To hurt her. He needed to hurt her so he did the one thing that he could do, the one thing that she could not escape from. She had fought madmen and spirits but he knew something that she could not fight. A force more powerful than anything that she had ever faced before.

He called her mother.

Mob had spent the entire day worrying about how she was going to go to work, how she was going to face everyone, what she was going to say and do and how she was going to act…but then her mom texted her at lunch that she was to come home straight after school, straight after the last bell, no stopping for any reason what so ever. Mom had something that she needed to discuss with her.

And she had used the word discuss.

Mom usually only said discuss when something bad was happening, or something big. She had never told her to come straight home after school before, unless she and dad were going away or something. Maybe that it. Maybe she was worried about nothing.

That didn't always mean something bad. Maybe they just wanted to talk about her grades. Maybe they just wanted to tell her to come home earlier because she had been staying out kind of late lately. Or maybe they were just changing the Wi-Fi password.

It was probably nothing.

That was what Mob told herself, anyway, as she walked home. Ritsu had still been at school when she left. She could feel his aura moving upwards, he had a student council meeting after school. That was weird, maybe, because they had the same parents and if it was just a family meeting or mom and dad were going off someplace then maybe Ritsu should have been informed too. Or maybe not. Maybe mom and dad just didn't want to bother Ritsu because he had important things to do.

This was nothing serious.

Mob carried that thought with her, that this was nothing serious at all, until she got home. She locked the door, took off her shoes, and put her school bag down. All normal.

"Shigeko, get in here." Mom called to her from the kitchen. That wasn't normal. That was weird, they didn't eat dinner this early. Mob didn't say anything to the weirdness of the situation, she just went to the kitchen and sat down at the table. Well this was the dining room part of the kitchen but they didn't have a separate dining room. Maybe that was what this was about, they were building a proper dining room like mom always wanted!

This probably had nothing at all to do with how late she had come home yesterday.

"Sit." Her mother pointed to a chair at the center of the table. Dad was at one head of the table, mom was at the other head.

"What's going on?" asked Mob as she sat down. Dad turned away from her and buries his face in his phone. Mom cleared her throat.

"Shigeko, I need you to be honest with us." Said Hana trying to stay calm. This could not have been true…but it came from Shigeko's boss…but there was no way that this could be true.

"Yes mom." Said Mob. Dad was still looking at his phone. Mom cleared her throat a couple times and then banged her hand on the table.

"Get your head out of your phone and help me parent our daughter!" said Mom. Dad raised his head but looked away from Mob when his eyes met hers.

"I'm sure that there's nothing the matter with Shigeko." Said Dad.

"You know that there is. Shigeko, your father and I know that you've been having sex-" said Mom

"No we don't!" said Dad

"We do." Said Mom. Mob stared and stared and stared. Maybe if she didn't move, didn't breath, then mom and dad would forget that they even had a daughter. She wished that she knew how to properly mess with the refraction of light. But she couldn't. She could only sit there at the kitchen table under her mother's gaze and her father's non-gaze.

Mom began to drum her fingers on the table.

The table began to shake.

Mob took her hands off the table.

The table stopped moving.

"See? She has nothing to say, she's not doing anything, and everything is fine. Now how about you and I head out and-" said Dad

"Shigeko, I know that you've been having sex. Your father wants to believe that you aren't but I'm not so naïve. I'm your mother, you can't hide anything from me. Now I'm going to ask you to tell me the truth. I know what happened but I need to hear the truth from you." Said Mom. Mob stayed silent.

"Shigeko. Talk." Said Mom

"I don't want to talk about this." said Mob. No, no way. There was no way that she was going to talk about this part of her life with her parents. She had enough to figure out and she needed to do it on her own hiding in her room and not at the table with her mom and dad.

"Shigeko. You will. I need to know the truth. Are you seeing someone?" asked Hana losing patience with her daughter. Shigeko was a person who could not get a clue. Surely she must have just…done something odd that was taken out of context. And as for the necessity of contraception…she was almost in high school. She was at that age and spent her school days surrounded by boys. Of course something would have eventually happened. With a boy. Not a grown man.

"I don't want to talk about-" said Mob

"Shigeko are you…are you in a relationship with a grown man?" asked Mom. Dad made a choking noise and shook his head.

"No. She's not. She can't be. This is all just a big to do about nothing." Said Dad

"Shigeko…tell the truth." Said Mom

"What happens if I don't say anything?" asked Mob. She did not want to talk about this, and not even because she knew that she was in deep trouble. This part of her life, now that there was a 'this' part of her life, was not for anyone not directly involved to know about. Especially not her parents.

"Then we'll just have to sit here until you do. All day. All night. All week. All month. All year. Shigeko, I need to hear the truth from you because right now I'm acting on information from someone else and I…your father and I don't want to believe that it's as serious as it sounds." Said Mom.

Mob said nothing. She said nothing for an hour.

"Hana, I don't think she's going to talk…." Said Dad. He had been on his phone the whole time. Mom had been holding eye contact with her this whole time.

"Shigeko…you know not to…I've been telling you for years to watch out for…why would you hide this from us. I mean…I know that nobody can make you…with your powers…but you should still know not to…" said Hana. She was angry and worried and so many other things and she just needed to get everything sorted but her daughter was so stubborn that of course she would sit at that table until the end of time rather than confess or explain herself.

"I don't want to talk about it. Don't be mad at me. I didn't do anything…really bad…" said Mob. Mom would tell her that she couldn't see Serizawa anymore. Which…she did want to see him again. She wanted to…just be with him…but now she had Master Reigen and that was who she had always wanted.

"You left the house while your father and I were away to spend the weekend with him. This I know. We trusted you..." said Mom

"…who told you?" asked Mob. She had gone out the window. Who could have even though to look for someone flying out the window? That was how Sho came in and out and nobody ever even noticed him. Wait…was Ritsu in trouble too?

"Never you mind how I know, just know that I know and I want to know the truth before I start making…assumptions….based on what I know." Said Mom

"You said that you knew." Said Mob

"I know what I've been told." Said Mom

"What have you been told?" asked Mob. She didn't like to tell lies but she didn't let being in trouble, too. She didn't even know how mom knew. The only people who knew were Serizawa, obviously, and then Ritsu and Sho. Ritsu and Sho would never tell on her. Sho wouldn't even have the chance. Mom did have her ways of getting information out of people….and Ritsu lived right here in the house….

"I know that you've been seeing that man from your work. I know that you've been spending your nights with him and I know that you snuck out all weekend to be with you, and never you mind how I know." Said mom

"…am I in trouble…?" asked Mob. Her mother stared at her for a moment.

"So you do confess?" asked Hana. Well then, that had only taken about an hour. Hopefully now they could get this whole thing settled before Ritsu came home. He had so much going on, he didn't need to worry about this.

"Yes, am I in trouble?" asked Mob. She just wanted this to be over. She just wanted to be sent to her room so she could go and be sad and worried on her own.

"Yes you are, Shigeko. You snuck around behind everyone's back! You could have gotten hurt!" said mom

"He would never hurt me…I know that he wouldn't." said Mob

"You're only fifteen, Shigeko, you don't know anything." Said mom. Mob shook her head. She wasn't a child and she knew plenty!

"I know that I shouldn't get in trouble just because I found someone who loves me…" said Mob. The table was shaking again.

"Just…go to your room. Go to your room because, right now, I am just too angry…Shigeko. I'm just too angry." Said mom

"Ok but…who told you?" Said Mob. Mom looked at her for a while.

"Who knows?" asked Hana. Multiple people knew and kept this from her. Thank God for that nice man Shigeko worked for.

"….I don't know, mom….I don't know what other people know…" said Mob. Mom stared at her.

"Ritsu lied for you. You got your brother to lie for you…" said Hana. Ritsu didn't usually tell lies, he was such a good boy…but Hana knew how siblings could be…

"Ritsu told?" asked Mob before she could think. Ritsu would never have…but mom had her ways of getting information out of people….but she and Ritsu had a deal! The entire contents of the kitchen cabinets began to rattle. The rattling almost drowned out the sound of the front door opening.

"Ritsu! Come in here!" called Hana. She heard her front door opening. It was either her son or a wandering murderer. Honestly at this point she would have taken the murderer. How had she so badly lost control of her household?

"Mom? What's going on?" asked Ritsu. It looked like a tribunal. Well, mom looked like she had put Shigeko in some kind of tribunal. Dad was just trying not to look at anything.

"You told!" said Mob as Ritsu came into view. How could he? What did mom do to get him to talk? Mob trusted him! Her own brother!

"Told me what?" asked Mom

"I didn't say anything!" said Ritsu. Oh no. If mom knew about that which he did not like to think about then did she also know about….this was bad. This was very bad. This set new standards of bad.

"Then why does mom know? We had a deal….you said that you wouldn't say anything if I didn't say anything." Said Mob

"I want to know what there is to be known and I want to know it right now! No more secrets, the both of you!" said Hana. Not Ritsu too. What could he have been hiding? He was fourteen, what couldn't he have been hiding?

"It's not as bad as Shigeko dating Serizawa!" said Ritsu. He was not losing Sho. His parents could not know about any of that. They would…they would never be alright with this. They would tell him that he couldn't see Sho anymore….

"It's the same as Ritsu dating Sho!" said Mob. Then all the lights flickered before burning out.

Then the fighting happened. Nobody won.


	18. Your Cheating Heart

A walk did Reigen some good.

After the moment was over, the anger faded, and his head was thoroughly cleared he realized just how badly he messed up. He had a right to be angry with Mob, the common denominator in all of this, but maybe he shouldn't have tattled to her mother like an angry little boy. He was too old to be telling on people like that. His problem was with Mob and he should have just talked to her about what happened like an adult.

Also there was the fact that he had, also, slept with Mob to consider.

Because now Mob could be telling her mother everything and this was not the kind of thing that her mother would just let go. Her parents trusted him with their daughter and he just went and-yeah. He messed up. He didn't know which was worse, the fact that he acted like a fifteen year old or the fact that he was in love with a fifteen year old.

At least he wasn't alone in this.

Serizawa was just as messed up he was. Reigen was wrong to hit him, wrong to insult him, and just all around wrong. This was not his fault. True he had been dating Mob in secret behind his back for weeks and weeks but the man sincerely thought that Reigen knew. How Serizawa figured that Reigen knew and was ok with that situation was a mystery. Any normal man would have been, rightly, freaked out that their friend and employee was dating a middle schooler and Serizawa had no reason to assume that Reigen wouldn't freak out.

Of course Serizawa thought that the whole thing was just hunky-dory.

How could a man his age think that it was ok to date a girl Mob's age? How did that even work? Reigen had to drink himself half to death night after night to even begin to become alright with how he felt. Serizawa just…went with it. He just went with it and he…he got Mob. That was also Reigen's fault. He should have just agreed to a relationship with her in the first place instead of trying to make her wait. Mob was still so young that three years might as well be three centuries.

She was only fifteen.

She was fifteen and he had been walking around for a while and ignoring the calls from angry clients and clearing his head and he just needed to stop being angry with her, and the initial rage and betrayal had subsided, but they were still there. She was only fifteen and she was just hurt and horny and then a guy was there that was into her and she just went with it. That was all. She was too young to…if she was too young to be accountable for her actions then she was too young for him.

She was too young for him.

But he still wanted her.

That was the worst part. Through all of this he was still so, incredibly, in love with her. He was even upset with himself for hurting her. If she had been any other woman that he had ever been with he would have just cut his losses and moved on. But this was Mob and there was no moving on from Mob. They had broken up once before, and that was exactly what it felt like all that time ago, and it had almost destroyed him.

But she had been fine.

She had been fine the last time they broke up. She had been living her life and hanging out with her friends and just being fourteen while he had been drinking himself to sleep and throwing salt around on national TV. She had only come back because he needed saving. She saved him.

She saved him in every way that a person could be saved.

She had been the one to make him into someone. That little girl in the pink dress with the Sailor Moon doll clutched in her hand had walked into his life and made him someone. She called him Master and saved his business and then she got older and saved his life and then she got even older and saved the world. She had saved him not only from spirits and espers but from himself.

That was what Mob did, she saved people.

He was not special.

Maybe he wasn't. Maybe she was just someone who had moved on long ago…and he still kept her around because he hadn't. Maybe…no. That was insane. She said that she loved him. She kissed him, which was a lot for someone her age actually. He had lost count of the women he kissed in his lifetime. She could count the number of people she kissed on one hand, probably, and still have fingers to spare. She was young like that, she hadn't even had the chance to…but now she had. She had kissed him and then later on she had given herself to him. She trusted him with her body, with her love, and he had…he had…

She had.

She had done all of that with Serizawa. She was only fifteen, it still meant something to her. It still meant something to go to bed with someone. He couldn't even begin to remember how many women he had slept with in his life. Names and faces and bodies and emotions blended into a blur in his mind. Mob though…she shined there at the forefront of his memory. She mattered. That had been…that had been one of the best experiences of his life.

And Serizawa's.

And Now Reigen wanted to go and find him and punch his stupid girlfriend stealing, Mob fucking, face in again and again and again! Because that was not OK! That was not OK because Mob was his! He never told Mob that…but she was not his then, when she started it with Serizawa. So technically he was the one who was two timing, not being two timed. Mob was cheating on her…boyfriend…with him. He was an accessory to cheating.

It wasn't like he had never been in that position before. He never asked if any of the women he had ever been with were married, only learned so after the fact. Married, in relationships, in long distance relationships, and the ever popular 'it's complicated'. Well he hadn't had any idea that was Mob was…with someone. She should have said something! This was on her!

A lot of this was on her.

But not on Serizawa.

A fair bit of it was on Reigen.

And because he had acted rashly, let his mouth run away with him, he had lost everything.

Hitting Serizawa had been one hundred fucking percent on him. Bringing Serizawa down to nothing emotionally had been all on him. He had lost himself a friend, an employee, and an office. There was no salvaging what he broke. He'd need to get all new office furniture….and there was no way in hell he was getting his security deposit back. No friend. No office. Just him.

So he kept on walking.

Because a walk would do him some good.

Sometimes all you needed was a good cry.

Serizawa had spent, he didn't even know how long, crying. He didn't remember getting home but he did remember how safe his room felt when he threw himself through the door. The blinds were closed, the outside was outside and the inside is inside. He's safe and warm in his bed. That's what he needs, to be safe. Safe and warm and away from everything.

Because it happened again.

He lost control and hurt someone. Reigen. His friend, possibly his best friend….but not anymore. Right? There was no way that Reigen still wanted to be his friend. Not after Serizawa had hurt him. Not after Serizawa had exploded and broken everything. Their friendship and their place of work. Not that Serizawa needed to worry about the office anymore, he was probably fired. For hitting his boss. For sleeping with the girl his boss loved.

Mob was not Reigen's girlfriend.

Serizawa was not a rebound.

Mob had not slept with Reigen.

Reigen had just been hurt and jealous and maybe drunk. There was no way that Mob would ever do that to him. He couldn't be just anyone to her. She loved him. Even though she deserved better, even though she could have easily gotten better, she chose him. She wanted to be with him. She loved him. She had said that she loved him. She had given herself to him and accepted him in return. They had shared the most beautiful of all human experiences with each other time and time again. It meant something. Each time meant something.

Each and every time meant 'I love you'.

Each and every time meant 'I am yours'.

Each and every time meant 'we are each other's.'

Every single time had meant something. The first, the last, all of it. She wouldn't just…they were not just having sex. She loved him. She never would have told him that she loved him if she didn't mean it. She had meant it every single time. So therefore Reigen had just been doing what he was best at, lying. Not that he had ever lied to Serizawa before, not before today. But he had an excuse because he was heartbroken. Reigen had feelings for Mob.

Serizawa couldn't blame her. She was perfect in every way.

She would never cheat on him.

But he still cried. He cried from the thought of it. The thought of it and his actions because…maybe he had believed it for a bit. Maybe that whole…thing…hadn't all been in self-defense. Maybe he had just wanted Reigen to **shut up** already and he…no. It had been an accident. He was done with all of that. He was not going to fight someone, anyone, with his powers. Mob didn't want him to ever do that again.

Mob was still his girlfriend.

Mob would never stop being his girlfriend.

Mob did not sleep with Reigen.

But he wanted to know…to confirm. He just needed to confirm what he already knew. He knew that Mob would never cheat on him but he just had to make sure. That was it. Mob was his and he was hers. Why would she even cheat on him? Because she wanted to have sex and he wasn't around? Or because she still…she still had feelings for Reigen.

Serizawa would gladly have picked option one, if she even had. Which of course she wouldn't.

But it would have been a much easier pill to swallow if she had just wanted to have sex and Serizawa wasn't around. That was understandable. What was she supposed to? She wanted to have sex and someone…available….was around so she just went off and had sex with him. Really there was no other option. What was she supposed to do if she wanted to have sex and Serizawa wasn't around?

Wait for a few goddamned hours or just touch herself like everyone else on the planet.

Not that she ever would cheat on him. But if she ever were to cheat on him he'd much rather she cheat because he wasn't around to make her feel good and she just…felt like having sex. Not that he would ever actually want her to cheat on him. Not that he would ever cheat on her. He was human, he noticed other women, but he would never do anything with one of them. Not just because he had no idea how to even go about approaching a woman, either.

He would never cheat on her.

He would never and could never have feelings for someone else. He didn't know any women, first of all, and even if he did he would never cheat on her. Same for when he wanted to have sex and she wasn't around. That was what the internet was for. Not that he thought that she would ever want to have sex so badly that she absolutely couldn't wait so she just HAD to jump into bed with Reigen.

That was insane.

Because she would never cheat on him.

He'd see her, eventually, and then they could just get this sorted out….and he could throw himself on her mercy. He had not only hurt someone she cared about but he had also pretty much wrecked their, just her, place of work. She would be, understandably, unhappy with him. But he would throw himself to the ground and beg her forgiveness because the thought of living his life without her is damn near unbearable.

He could not go on without her.

He loved her. He loved her so totally and completely that, without her, he didn't have much of a reason to do anything. He could just stay here, in bed, forever. The blinds closed and nowhere to go. Just himself there. Safe from the world. The world safe from him. Just him in his room….like before…it would be easy.

But he couldn't. He still had to be there for her. He had to be everything that she wanted, everything that she needed. He could not just let himself rot in his room anymore. He needed to get back up again! He needed to call her and tell her what happened and then apologize and then find another job because he needed one because he was an adult and he was rejoining society and he had his girlfriend to provide for, one day, when she was an adult. That was what she wanted too. She wanted a life with him because that was what you wanted when you were with someone you loved.

She loved him.

Not Reigen.

And even if she did ever…with someone else…it would have been his fault anyway. He knew in the core of his being that he was not at all good enough for her. If she were to ever sleep with someone else it would be because she wasn't getting enough sex or it wasn't good or she was bored or…or she realized how amazing she was and that, if she wanted it, she could have an entire harem of men who would want to be with her because she was absolutely perfect in every way.

But she would never cheat on him. She loved him. They loved each other.

But he would still talk to her, just in case.

Mob's phone vibrated. She couldn't get to it. She was standing in her room facing the corner. Her phone was charging on her desk. Mom had been so shocked but what Mob had said, and the ensuing fight between her and Ritsu, that she forgot to take Mob's phone away.

Mob hoped that getting her phone taken away was the only punishment that she had coming to her.

She was in trouble. Big trouble. Not only had she snuck around behind mom and dad's backs but she made Ritsu lie for her. Also she had ben complacent in keeping Ritsu's secret, too. She had also broken Ritsu's trust and told his secrets. Of course Mob didn't know how she could simultaneously be in trouble for keeping Ritsu's secrets and breaking his trust but she was. She was also in trouble for sneaking out, lying, having sex, and dating a grown man when she knew full well that she should not be dating grown men.

Mom had a lot of opinions on who Mob should be dating.

Mob didn't much care for them. She could date whoever she wanted. She was not a child anymore. She had saved the world. She had almost died, she might have even died for a little bit when her body sort of…came apart…during the explosion….she was not a child! She was old enough to make her own choices about who she dated. Not that she saw herself dating Serizawa for much longer.

Master Reigen had probably told him what happened.

There was no way that Serizawa was going to forgive Mob for what she did.

So he would probably want them to break up. Before she would have been…not this upset. She would have been happy because Master Reigen wanted to be with her and she wanted to be with him but now…she didn't want Serizawa to go. He understood her. Not just what shows she liked or what games but also just what it was like to be her. To be the vessel for a terrible power that you couldn't always control.

To live in a world made out of rice paper. The world was a paper dollhouse for paper dolls and she always had to be conscious of the fact that she could so easily tear to pieces without even thinking….he understood that. He understood what it was like to be afraid of yourself. To think that everyone in the whole world would be better off without you in it.

He understood.

She loved him.

She loved Master Reigen.

She didn't know what to do. She wanted to be with both of them but…but of course Serizawa wanted nothing to do with her, now, because Master Reigen had probably told him everything and if not that wasn't any better. If he hadn't told Master Reigen then she was expected to either do it herself, she had no idea how she could ever tell Serizawa, but she would have to and she had no idea how she would even BEGIN to tell him and-

Or she could just keep her mouth shut.

Which would, of course, lead to even more problems. How could she ever go in to work again? How could she ever face either of them again? She couldn't. There was no way that she could sit at that desk with the two of them right there and the weight of what she had done grinding her down more and more and more until she just couldn't take it anymore!

Like now.

She could barely take it now.

Too much. Way too much. Master Reigen confessing to her, having sex with Master Reigen, her mom finding out, accidentally telling on Ritsu…it was all too much. She had a million and one problems and no idea how to even start fixing them.

A bang on the wall. An aura pushing against hers.

"Brother! I said that I was sorry!" said Mob. She hadn't exploded, she could at least be grateful for that. She had, however, thrown her brother across the house. In her defense he had done it first. But she had been the one to tell on him. But he had, maybe, probably, been the one to tell on her. Also he called her names. But she, also, may have called him a betrayer…but he didn't have to curse! But she didn't have to tell on him.

But who else could have told?

Or maybe mom had just used one of her mom tricks to get the truth out of her.

"Don't talk to me!" said Ritsu. He kicked the wall again. In his room facing the corner, like he was a little kid. All because of his sister. She told. How could she? He had kept her secret, which in retrospect he hadn't, because she said that she would tell his if he ever said anything. Well she had told anyway. It wasn't mom, either, because mom never used her mom tricks on Shigeko, and they were easy to avoid anyway! They were in middle school, not pre-school! They both should have been immune to her tricks by now!

But then why would Shigeko just go off and tell on him like that?

He shouldn't have pushed her with his powers, that was on him, and he hadn't even wanted to. He just got so mad that it happened. Her pushing him back had, obviously, been her powers acting without her input. They should not have fought but he had been so mad and he was still so mad and-

"I said that I was sorry! I didn't mean to tell on you! Honest! I just thought that you…did you tell mom?" asked Mob. For a minute she thought that he didn't hear her, there was a wall between them after all.

"No. I was not the one to tell mom. I can keep a secret. Even though I shouldn't have." Said Ritsu before he hit the wall again. He succeeded at making himself feel a little better, in the moment. Mom and dad knew. They weren't mad at him but they knew.

They weren't mad about him and Sho. They, after he and his sister stopped throwing each other through the house, told Ritsu that they were not at all mad that he liked boys or that he had a boyfriend. They were, however, mad that he had kept it a secret. They were mad that he had kept Shigeko's secret. They were mad that he had lied for Shigeko.

They were really mad.

"Hana! Stop sweeping for one minute! You're just getting glass everywhere!"

"Just hold that dustpan straight! Or better yet, go out and get up some new flatware and plates and bowls and cups and chopsticks and-and-and MY KITCHEN!"

He felt bad about fighting with his sister, of course he did. There was no excuse for fighting with your sibling or with fighting with girls in general. She had started it but he had to be the mature one, as usual, and be weary of her. He was lucky, though, because she hadn't exploded.

If she exploded then their mom would have had more to be worried about than the kitchen.

But it wouldn't have been his fault.

"Ritsu….I'm sorry. I really thought that you had-" said Mob

"Will you please just leave me alone!? Ok?!" said Ritsu. Mob took a step back from the wall.

"The two of you had better still be standing in those corners!" yelled Mom. There was the sound of more glass breaking and then she started cursing. Mob stepped back into the corner quickly in case mom decided to come upstairs and check. She was in enough trouble for sneaking around and making Ritsu lie and stuff like that, she did not need to add getting out of the corner to her list of crimes.

"Hana, you can't make them stand in the corners! They're fourteen and fifteen years old! They need us to talk to them and to listen and then we all need to work through this, these are teenagers! Not children! Punishing them will only push them further away!" mom and dad had bene fighting for a while. Dad thought that mom was being too harsh, he wanted to talk it out as a family. Mom wanted to 'put the fear of God into them' which made Mob figure that they were going to a church or a temple or a shrine or some other place people went to in order to atone for the bad things that they did.

Mob didn't want to do either of those things.

She wanted to be anywhere but there and to be doing anything other than standing in the corner like a five year old waiting for mom to come in and yell at them.

"Sister….I'm just….how could you? I trusted you? And you should have trusted me! If I say that I'm going to keep your secret then I'll keep your secret. Ok? You didn't have to ruin my life!" said Ritsu

"How did I ruin your life? Mom and dad didn't say that you weren't allowed to date Sho anymore. They aren't even mad about that, they said so specifically." Said Mob

"You still told them and now they know! I wasn't planning on telling them anytime soon but you told them and-and why did you have to drag me into this?" said Ritsu

"Because I thought that you told. Who else would? You never wanted me to date Serizawa and you're always worried about me and stuff. If anyone is going to tell it would make sense for it to be you. Nobody else who knows has any motivation to tell." Said Mob

"Well, obviously, they do. You shouldn't have even been dating him in the first place. Mom is right to be mad at you. I don't care if he loves you, it's weird and it's making mom and dad fight and it's making us fight and it made you ruin my life and-" said Ritsu. His voice was drowned out by heavy footsteps. Mob's door opened.

"Shigeko! Leave your brother alone!" said Hana. No. She was not going to have the children spend another second fighting. The house could not take it. She could not take it.

"But I was just saying sorry-" said Mob

"You should be apologizing to your father and I! Shigeko. How could you…you know better! And stay in the corner and leave your brother alone! Your father and I are trying to clean up the house in peace!" said Mom

"I'm sorry that I snuck around behind your backs and that I made Ritsu lie but I'm not sorry that I found someone who loves me and who I love. What does it matter that he's older than me? I don't care. People's ages don't matter." Said Mob. She didn't care about the age thing and Master Reigen was not right to try and make her wait until she was an adult. Because there was no point. No matter how old she was she was still herself.

"Shigeko…you are fifteen years old. You are supposed to date boys your own age. You are not supposed to date grown men. You know better. I know that with your powers…your powers do not give you the right to so whatever you want…and I don't know what I'm going to do…" said Mom

"But-" said Mob

"And don't you try and tell me that it's the same as Ritsu dating his little friend. Your brother…your brother is dating a boy his own age! You have to date boys your own age! Just-" said Mom

"I don't see why age matters. If two people love each other then why does it matter how old they are?" asked Mob. Mom bit her lip and balled her fist before sighing.

"You. Are. Fifteen. You don't know what you're talking about. Shigeko…you don't want to date the sort of man who would date a girl your age…and you certainly shouldn't be having sex with him…and I know that you're having sex! I'm the one who took you to the doctor! But that does not give you a free pass to go and have sex with whatever grown men….Shigeko you think it's love but this man probably just wants to…to sleep with you…" said Hana. Somewhere along the way she had given her daughter far too much trust and far too little guidance with matters of the opposite sex.

"No. He loves me. He said so. He said that he loves me and he wants us to have a life together with a house and a family and stuff." Said Mob. Mom just stared at her.

"….I can't do this right now." Said Hana. That was worse, much worse. Either Shigeko was being lied to, believable, or Shigeko was in way over her head and had no clue….also probably.

So it was time to take a breather. Yelling wasn't working. Reasoning wasn't working. Tempers were running high and she needed to just take a moment because this was too much.

"What does it matter how young I am or how old he is? I'm not little anymore." Said Mob

"Shigeko…stop this. As long as you live under my roof then you will live by my rules! And you are not going to date grown men!" said Hana. She slammed the door as she left. She didn't mean to but she did. How could her daughter be so stubborn? When had she lost control of her family so terribly?

Mob rested her head on the wall. As long as she lived under mom and dad's roof she would have to do what they said. She was in the corner like a five year old and mom had yelled at her like she was a five year old and now she was going to be punished like a five year old and-

She was not little.

She was not little anymore and she would not live like this. Mom and dad…she didn't get it. Serizawa loved her and she loved him, mostly, she also loved Master Reigen but that was a whole other thing that they did NOT need to know about. Mob could run her own life. As long as she lived under mom and dad's roof then she had to do what they said. Well then.

Well what if she didn't live under their roof.

Serizawa loved her and he wanted a life with her and…and she needed to say sorry anyway….and Ritsu probably hated her now…and he parents only stopped yelling at each other to yell at her….

Did she want a life with Serizawa?

She didn't know. The thought of all of those adult things that he wanted made her feel like she was drowning. Drowning under the weight of responsibility that she hadn't even conceived of…but the weight of all the fighting over here made her feel like she was drowning too….drowning under the weight of all the fighting and the negativity….

She wanted Master Reigen.

He didn't want any of that adult stuff with her. He didn't ask her if she wanted to live in a house or an apartment or if she wanted to stay in Seasoning City or move. He didn't ask her to meet his parents or ask to meet her parents. He didn't ever rest his hand on her stomach and just sort of lay there…

Master Reigen also loved her. He loved her, he said so, and they had made love yesterday…but that had been wrong. She had been wrong to do that. She had been…but it had felt so good. So pure and good and right when they were in the moment and he was inside of her and she was inside of her and it had just been the most perfect moment of her life!

But it had been wrong.

But if anyone knew what to do it would be Master Reigen.

She knew what she had to do. She was going to go out the window. Yes. It wasn't like she could get into any more trouble than she was in already. She stuffed her duffle bag full of clothes and essentials and then left out the window. She's head down towards the office and see if Master Reigen was still there. Yes, that was what she would do.

Of course, when she got there, nobody was around. The sign on the door said closed and there was another, handwritten, sign that said 'no work today' which was weird because there was always some kind of work. She had a key, of course, and when she opened the door she was greeted with what looked to have been the aftermath of a bombing.

And a lot of very familiar energy hanging in the air.

Serizawa exploded.

Master Reigen must have told him.

Mob couldn't breathe. She leaned forward and tried to get air into her lungs. Serizawa knew. He knew and he probably hated her. He probably never wanted to see her again. He probably cursed the day he had ever met her. She caught her breath, eventually, and pulled out her phone. She wasn't sure who she intended to call. Master Reigen? Serizawa? A random number and hope it was someone with answers?

She didn't have to call anyone. The choice had been taken from her. Not that she was complaining or anything, she had no idea what she was going to do anyway. Both options came with their own problems and she was, honestly, thinking of just going back to her room and standing in the corner like a little kid. But she was not a little kid. She was practically grown and she could run her own life. Her life was her own and now she knew what she was going to do. She was going to Serizawa's house. Serizawa had called her. He had texted her too. He wanted her to come over. He said that he had something he needed to discuss with her.

He used the word discuss. Nothing good ever came of an adult saying that they needed to discuss something with you.

She wondered if she could live in the messed up office. But she couldn't. She had to own up to what she had done. She had to say sorry and bed his forgiveness because no matter how good and right and perfect it had felt it still had not actually been the right thing to do.

So she went to Serizawa's house.

Serizawa felt her before he saw her.

Her aura pushed against his as she entered his building. The pressure got more and more difficult to deal with as she got closer and closer. Up the elevator and down the hall. His aura wanted to bond with hers. He wanted to bond with her. But he also didn't. He didn't want to mix his aura with hers or his body or anything…not until he knew the truth.

Not until he confirmed the truth.

He felt her hovering outside of his door and he knew that the polite thing to do would have been go get up and open the door for her but he couldn't. He was stuck. Not physically and not metaphysically. The only person trapping him on his bed and underneath his covers was himself. That was it. He was his own man and he could have gotten up at any time. He just didn't. He just couldn't.

She knocked.

He didn't know what to say. He was the one that invited her over…he didn't know when, exactly. He was the one who wanted to discuss everything with her. He was the one who wanted answers. He was the one who had let all of these crazy thoughts into his mind. That she could ever possibly cheat on him. He knew that she wasn't that sort of person. He knew that he could trust her.

He just needed to confirm what he knew.

It was like painting a plastic model. You knew when the pain was dry but you tested it anyway just to confirm that the very first coat was dry. Then you could do the accents and the gloss. Well that was what he was doing. Just…confirming what he already knew.

She knocked again.

But what if she had cheated on him. What if she was there, at his door, to tell him that she was going to be Reigen's girlfriend, now? What if she was there to tell him that she was tired of him or bored of him? What if she was there to tell him that she…that she had never loved him at all? He couldn't deal with that. He could not lose her. If she did cheat he prayed to God that she had just wanted to have sex but didn't want…he didn't want it to be true but if it had to be true then he prayed that she just wanted to have sex but didn't want to wait. That…out of all the reasons she could have cheated on him that would be the least painful one.

His phone vibrated.

He opened the door with his powers.

"Serizawa? Why is it so dark in here?" asked Mob. The blinds were down but that wasn't right because the sun was still up. Serizawa never, ever, closed the blinds during the day. He didn't want to start slipping back into what he was. But now it was dark and he was probably that lump under the covers and…and he knew. He knew and he was backsliding and…and this was her fault.

He knew.

"Mob….Mob please tell me….tell me that…" said Serizawa. He was still underneath his blankets. He could feel her getting even closer and he fought against his own aura. He wanted to bond with her. He didn't want to bond with her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and he wanted to tell her to go away and never come back. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and he never wanted to see her face again.

No. Stop that.

Of course she hadn't actually cheated on him. Of course she was not close to being capable of doing something like that. She could have done better, so much better, but she didn't want better. She wanted him. Not Reigen Arataka. She did not want to be with Reigen Arataka.

"Serizawa? Are you…are you mad at me?" asked Mob as she approached his bed. He sat up and pushed his blanket off.

"Do I…do I have anything to be mad at you about?" asked Serizawa. She asked if he was mad at her…but that might have just been a question. She might have just thought that was he was angry because he was sitting there in the dark and hadn't opened the door for her.

"I don't know. You said you wanted to talk to be about something. Well you said 'discuss' and when an adult says that they want to discuss something with you it's usually…not good." Said Mob

"Why do you have a bag with you?" asked Serizawa. He did want to discuss everything with her but discussing everything with her would mean that she would know what he did…and he would know what she may have done.

"My mom said that as long as I live under her roof then I have to do what she says. She says that I'm not allowed to date you because you're an adult and I'm not. So then I got upset and I just sort of…left I guess." Said Mob. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe she didn't entirely think this one through. She was not little and she didn't like being yelled at and treated like she was little so she had left…

Maybe she should have thought this through.

She couldn't stay with Serizawa, she couldn't even look at him. If she looked at him and he saw her then he'd know and she….she didn't know if he knew and she didn't want to tell him…she didn't want to have to tell him.

But she had to. She needed him to forgive her. Either he would or he wouldn't. She just needed an answer.

"You…you came to me? I mean…Shigeko. Listen. Today-" said Serizawa

"You called me Shigeko." Said Mob

"I know. I'm sorry. It's just…I want to talk to you about something…" said Serizawa

"I know. You said discuss. Do you want me to call you Katsuya?" asked Mob. His name felt weird in her mouth. This whole thing felt weird. She felt weird. She was used to being with him in his room but now there was this…thing…between them. Even their auras wouldn't bond anymore.

"If you want to. I just…today I…I went to work and…" said Serizawa

"I know. I was there. Well not after school, because I had to go straight home so my mom could yell at me, but I went to work and everything was broken and Master Reigen wasn't there but there was a lot of your energy there and I…you exploded." Said Mob. She took some of his blanket and played with it between her fingers. She sat sitting on the very edge of his bed, her bag was down by her feet. He was sitting closer to the wall. Still. Very still.

"You went to Reigen before me…?" asked Serizawa

"…I'm here now." Said Mob because, well, that was what she had done but she didn't know if she could tell him that. If she told him….if she told him then maybe he would…maybe he would want to talk about what she would rather not talk about.

"But you still went to Reigen. Shigeko…can we talk?" asked Serizawa

"We're talking right now." Said Mob

"No I mean…Reigen told me that you…that you slept with him." said Serizawa. There was a pause before the room was full of pink, then blue, light followed by enough force to disturb the multitude of plastic models that he had stuck to the shelves around them. He keep himself rooted in place.

Maybe she was just shocked that Reigen would even say such a thing.

That was not an admission of guilt.

Even though she was still and silent. Even though even her hair, which was standing totally vertically, was still. Even though she made no move to do anything, even as he watched her. Even as he let his aura reach out to hers. She was silent.

"Do you want to break up with me?" Asked Mob finally. Then more silence.

"No." said Serizawa quickly. He would never…he could never…..even if she had…

He cried.

The first tear dropping down onto the bed had surprised him. The second did not. Nor did the third. They came silently at first. Silent and numerous. For himself. For her. For them. For what they had. For what they could have had. For the fact that she had taken away everything that they had.

It felt like that, anyway.

There was a cold burning in his chest. A burning that made his heart clench and his face heat up and his entire self just clench and shiver and burn at the same time. He could see his aura. He could feel his aura reaching around the room, the building, the world even maybe. There was the sound of plastic falling apart. The sound of pieces hitting other pieces as they all came tumbling down to the ground.

He made a sound that was wet and gross but he didn't have the presence of mind to be embarrassed about. It seemed to break her out of her stupor because now she was scooting over to him. She wrapped her arms around his chest and tried to bury her face in the crook of his neck. He shrugged her off. She still tried and then he still tried until eventually he had to push her arms off of him.

"If you want to break up…we can." Said Mob. He had rejected her. He had pushed her away. He didn't want her. Why would he? She had cheated on him. She had cheated on him and now he was crying and his powers went picking things up and throwing them and he had broken all of his plastic models and he loved them and this whole thing was her fault!

"No. I don't…I love you." Said Serizawa and wasn't that just the saddest part of all. She cheated on him and he took her right back. No, not even. He never cast her aside in the first place. He should have been angry with her. He tried to get angry at her. He tried to summon that same sort of anger that he had felt before, when Reigen told him, not to hurt her but to just feel something other than whatever THIS feeling was that was settling in his chest and his stomach and was making cold and shaky but also burning hot.

"Why?" asked Mob. Why did he still want to be with her? She had been as bad as she could be. She had cheated on him. The thought of him with another woman…she couldn't picture it. She couldn't picture him having anything to do with another woman, mainly because she never knew him to know any other women.

"Because…you're you." Said Serizawa. She was still her. She was still that same perfect, amazing, beautiful girl who saved him. She was still the same girl who he had cuddled with for five straight hours while they watched Evangelion together, only a few specific episodes, and she never got bored once. This was still the same girl who would rather go hobbling around in only one sock rather than risk losing it to the sock abyss like it's brother. This was still the same girl who curled up on his chest and drifted off with a series of a mewing sounds and a small 'I love you, Serizawa.' This was still the same girl who climbed into his bed on that first night and asked him to kiss her. Who asked him to do everything with her. Who screamed his name and wrapped herself around him. Who looked up at him completely blissed out and told him that he made her feel good, better than anything ever.

She was still his.

But there was still something between them.

Because she had been Reigen's too.

She had let Reigen hold her and held him in return, probably. She had let Reigen kissed her and kissed him back in return, probably. She had let Reigen inside of her…just let him….and of course it had felt good for her, that was the point, but she didn't have to-! But she did. She shared herself with Reigen. Reigen knew what I t was like to hold her and cuddle her and see her hopping around with one sock on trying to find the other. Reigen had seen her face after she had just…when her pupils were so dilated it was like she didn't have irises and her face was completely flushed and her hair was floating in some invisible current. To Reigen the current would have been invisible. Serizawa could see it, her aura, and what it looked like after she, after they, were done. Serizawa knew how it felt to have her aura bond with his afterwards. To belong to each other so totally and completely…

But he still loved her.

Because he could never cast her aside.

No matter what she did.

"But I cheated on you. I hurt you. Why do you still want us to be together?" asked Mob. She loved Master Reigen and she also loved, or at least really cared about, Serizawa. She wanted…she did want to be with Master Reigen but she also wanted to be with Serizawa and the entire thing was too complicated so she handed Serizawa the descision and he was making the most illogical…why? She had hurt him. She didn't want him to go. She didn't want to lose he times they had together. The long walks through the city, the cuddled, the long talks about anime and manga, the little ways he show her he loved her like when he'd just sort of…stop when they were in the middle of it and touch the side of her face and tell her that he loved her so fucking much, his words, once, and it had been weird to hear him cursing but it also made her feel good because he had said it from the bottom of himself, his truest feelings, but now all of that was ruined because of her and-

"I know. I know and it hurts but I…I could never stop loving you. I love you Shigeko Kageyama. I love you, Mob. No matter what happens I will always love you….even though you did…this…" said Serizawa. He did love her. Even if the thought of holding her right now, of kissing her, of anything makes his insides want to become his outsides. Even if he wants to shove her out of his bed and tell her to go the fuck away and not come back…for a long time. Even if he did horrible…and eh had been horrible today. Lost his best friend, lost his job, lost his purpose for rejoining society….but it hadn't been the job, it had been her. She was his purpose. She was his reason and his life. He could not lose her, he could not cast her aside, because if he did then he would truly have nothing.

He was nothing without her.

"I'm sorry….I'm so sorry!" said Mob. She was, she really was. She had made him explode. She had made him cry. She had made him make a huge mess. She had made the mess. This whole mess was all her fault and she was terrible. Just terrible….

"Why? Why did you….why did you sleep with him?" said Serizawa. He needed an answer. He needed to know what this was even about. He prayed that she didn't have feelings for Reigen. He prayed that she had just wanted to have sex so she had sex instead of waiting or taking care of it herself.

"….because I wanted to…" said Mob. She really had no other reason. Nobody made her. Nobody tricked her. Nobody begged her. Nobody forced her to do anything that she didn't want to do. This had all been her.

"….why?" asked Serizawa. Sex. It had been about sex and only sex. He could understand that, sort of, but not really, but it was better than the alternative.

"Because he…he was there and we were there and he confessed to me and then he…he kissed me and I wasn't thinking about anything else but how much I had wanted it with him and how long I had wanted it for….and then we had sex…and then when it was over I was thinking about you and how much I had hurt you and…and I'm sorry!" said Mob. He didn't say anything. He had picked a spot in the dark and he was staring at it.

"So it was just about sex?" asked Serizawa. That wasn't all he wanted to ask her. He wanted to ask her what she did, what she did with Reigen. Morbid curiosity, maybe, or maybe he just wanted to erase the mental picture that he had in his mind of the two of them twisted and tangled together in the same way that he and Mob had been twisted and tangled together more times than he could even count.

"…what do you mean?" asked Mob. It had been about sex then, but not really, because she had spent so many years in love with Master Reigen…and he was in love with her….

"Do you love him?" asked Serizawa. Mob covered her eyes and shook her head.

"I don't want to hurt you." Said Mob. She could lie, so easily lie, but lies did not come easy. She could omit the full truth but telling full on lies…that was Master Reigen's domain. Her liar. Her favorite liar.

"Mob, do you love him?" asked Serizawa. That was not an answer. He needed a yes or a no. That was all he needed.

"Serizawa….I've already hurt you enough…" said Mob. She could hear him crying again. She was crying, too, she could feel her tears pressing against the hands she had over her eyes.

"Shigeko, just tell me the truth." Said Serizawa

"Katsuya, no….I don't want to hurt you-" said Mob

"I'm already hurt! Will you just tell me the fucking truth?!" said, or rather shouted, Serizawa. She recoiled from him and he wished that he could take it back the second it came out. She was hurt too. She was crying into her hands, she had drawn her knees up to her chest at some point, and her aura was all over the place. Good. Not good. She deserved it. He loved her. She did not deserve to feel even a tenth of what he was feeling.

"Yes! Ok! I love him and-and I love you too! OK?! I love you and I am so, so, so, sorry!" said Mob. Now she was crying. She took her hands away from her eyes and buried her face in her knees. Serizawa wanted to go over to her side of the bed and hold her because she should never, ever, ever cry like that…but he stayed put. He stayed put because as much as he loved her he didn't want to…he wanted to be away from her. But he couldn't be away from her. She was in his room and on his bed and she packed a bag so she was planning on staying and if this had happened twenty four hours ago, the planning on staying part, not the cheating part, then he would have been over the moon…

"….what did I do?" asked Serizawa. Mob looked up at him, her vision was blurry, her eyes were still filled with tears. Her eyes and her eye lashes. What did he do? Nothing. Of course he hadn't done anything. This was about her and how stupid and selfish she had been.

"You didn't do anything." Said Mob

"I must have done something to make you…to make you want to go to him. Is it because I was away? Because we weren't spending enough time together? Because you're…you're bored of me or upset and at me or just…just you realized how amazing you are…." Said Serizawa

"No! It wasn't about you! It was about me and how I was…I wasn't thinking about you at all." Said Mob. Serizawa gasped like he was in pain.

"….was it ever about me?" asked Serizawa

"No. I didn't have sex with Master Reigen because of you or anything that you did. This was my fault, all my fault." Said Mob

"No…I mean this. What was have….was it ever about me? You…why are you with me? Why did you even start this with me? Because he hurt you? Because he rejected you? Could I…could I just be anyone? Would you have just gone home with any man that you had run into?" asked Serizawa

"No. That's crazy. I wouldn't have done that with a random person. It's you because…because you were so nice to me. I didn't go looking for you or hoping to run into you…you were just there and you were so nice to me…you really were. You saw that I was sad and you wanted to make me feel better. You…you were so nice to me and I wanted…I wanted to have that with someone who was nice to me, with someone who would never reject me…." Said Mob

"Did you love me, then? Did I…did I mean anything to you? Did anything?" asked Serizawa, his voice low. This was…she hadn't set out to…but she had chosen him. Because he had been nice to her. But he…he was not a rebound. Even if she had only gone to him because she was hurting and wanted to be with someone who could never hurt her…

"I love you right now. Back then…it was different. Then…then I think that I just wanted to…when you told me you loved me it scared me…but now it doesn't…and I'm just…I'm scared right now….because I made a great big mess and I just…I don't know what's going to happen…" said Mob. Scared. That was the word Serizawa latched onto. She couldn't be scared. She was fearless. She had…he had seen her thrown through buildings. Set on fire. Crushed under the weight of…but she had gotten back up and kept on fighting. For him. For them. For everyone because he was not special, she just saved people, but she had saved him and that meant something….and now she was scared and it was his fault for…for not just forgiving her.

When you loved someone you forgave them.

So he had to forgive her.

Because no matter how much it hurt to even be in the same room as her he did still love her.

"You can stay, if you want to. I want…if you want to." Said Serizawa. He reached over and brushed the tears from her cheeks. She was his, still his. She had come to him, not Reigen, and that was what mattered. She was sorry. She said that she was sorry. She had come to him, not Reigen, and she was sorry.

"You want me to stay? You still want to be with me? Even after everything that I did? You…you still love me?" asked Mob softly. Why? Why did he still love her? She had been as bad as she could be and he still loved her. She wanted…she wanted him to love her. She wanted to love him. She wanted Master Reigen to love her. She wanted to love him.

She didn't want Serizawa to break up with her.

"….I could never stop loving you, Shigeko Kageyama." Said Serizawa. He couldn't. It was impossible. It hurt, loving her hurt, but he still did. She was his world, now. He had let her become his world. Maybe when they started this whole thing. Maybe when they first met. At some point she had become his world, his reason, and he could not ever let her go.

"But I hurt you." Said Mob

"I still love you. It hurts but I still love you. I just…I still love you but it hurts so much. Just…why did you have to go and…and…and I know you said because he confessed to you…because he was there…but I just…I don't understand. I don't understand but I still love you. Just please…don't do it again. I just…you love him. You love him and you…you love me. Just please…please don't ever…I don't think that I could take it if you ever…" said Serizawa. He pulled her close. Usually he loved this, holding her, but now he just wanted to let her go and get back under his blanket and just…just exist. He just wanted to exist for a while. Back to…back to the darkness and the safety and time just passing by. If time just passed by then he could get out of this moment. This painful moment.

"Ok. I promise that I won't ever cheat on you with Master Reigen again. I'm…I'm sorry." Said Mob. She wanted to, again, and that was just awful of her. It had felt good and been good and she wanted…she wanted a lot of things and she had been selfish, then, but she could not be selfish now because whether she liked it or not Serizawa loved her and she was his and his alone. It wasn't like she could have two…right? It didn't work like that, right?

Right?


	19. Your Atoning Heart

The walls were closing in on her.

That was what it felt like, anyways. She felt like the walls were small and getting smaller. Probably because it was always so dark inside. Serizawa said that he didn't want to open the blinds and never wanted to again. So now they were sitting in the dark together. Just like they had for every single night this week.

Doing homework by the glow of the TV screen was not easy.

But Mob didn't want to go home.

How could she? She was the one who had made this great big mess. She was the one who had done horrible things and been horrible and now she had to atone for what she did. Atone for it and make it better. She had no idea how to even go about fixing what she had broken but she had to figure it out. She had been as bad as she could be and now she had to make it better.

Even if she had no idea how to go about doing that.

"Do you want something else? I can make you something else." Said Mob looking up from her homework. She was sitting on the bed, Serizawa was sitting on the floor playing Bomber Man. She had made dinner, she always made dinner, usually it was cup noodle. This time she made the spicy seafood cup noodle. Serizawa had let his go cold.

"….no. I'm fine." Said Serizawa. She was there, right behind him, where she always was. It was…she had come home from school and now she was doing her homework. That was her routine. She also made him dinner, that was another part of her routine. He didn't feel like eating. He didn't feel like doing much of anything.

"Ok. You can tell me if you want me to make you something else, though, because I don't mind. I just want to make you…happy I guess." Said Mob. Of course he would probably never be happy again. Not after what she had done.

"….I'm fine." Said Serizawa. Happy? He could barely remember feeling happy. He didn't feel much of anything. After the crushing pain of losing her all he could feel was a sort of numbness. She was there but not…it was not the same. She didn't…she loved him but she loved Reigen more. She had cheated on him, she had betrayed him.

But he couldn't let her go.

He could never let her go. He still loved her. Even now he loved her. He loved her so much. She was still his everything. He just couldn't bring himself to look at her or touch her or hold her or anything. Even sleeping next to her was difficult. He'd wake up, sometimes, wrapped around her. In those sleepy moments between the world of dreams and reality he'd bury his face in her hair and just feel her. Her body, her warmth, her aura. All of her. In those moments it was just the two of them, that was all. Just him and her as the only two people in the entire world. He couldn't remember a single thing, in those moments, about anything other than the fact that he loved her.

Then he'd fully step into the world of reality.

And he'd let her go.

Because no matter how much he loved her he just could not look past it. He could not look past the fact that she had…it felt like a betrayal. He never explicitly told her that he didn't want her to sleep with anyone else but wasn't it a given? They were in a relationship. He told her what he wanted with her, a life and a forever, and she never said anything that even hinted that they weren't on the same page about all of that. If they weren't on the same page then why would she just go and…with Reigen.

Because he was Reigen Arataka.

He was everything that Serizawa was not.

So of course Mob would love him. Had loved him. She had spent their entire relationship in love with Reigen Arataka. She was still in love with him. She probably thought about him all the time. She probably wished that she was sitting on his bed doing her homework, not Serizawa's. She probably wished that she was in his bed, period. Not Serizawa's.

It was not just about sex.

But it did have a lot to do with this.

It meant something when he was with her. To him, anyway, it had meant something. To her…how could she have just gone and done that? How could she have just jumped into bed with Reigen like that? She said that she hadn't even THOUGHT about him…she had just done it. No thought to the relationship she was in. No thought to the life that she had said that she wanted to build with the man she said that she loved.

He still wanted to build a life with her.

But now it was an abstract want. A want on the backburner of his consciousness. Right now he didn't even have the strength of leave the house. Not even to look out the window. Not even to open the blinds so he had the option of looking out the window. Nothing. He just had the energy to sit and try to forget. Videogames were good for that. Videogames and junk food and sitting in the dark in his pajamas all day while the world turned around him.

"You won." Said Mob. He was doing really well. She didn't have the patience to just sit and play for hours like he did. He had been playing that since she got up that morning. She wondered if he did anything else that day. He was sitting in the same spot playing the same game when she came back from school. He didn't move when she showered and changed into her nightshirt, either. Not even when she made them dinner. Did microwaving cup noodle count as dinner? Maybe she was supposed to learn how to cook. That was what adults did, they cooked proper meals.

She was an adult now.

Nobody saw it. They still acted like she was a child. She was not a child. She was an adult and she was living her adult life and doing the adult thing and trying to make it all better. Not that there was any coming back from this, really. Not that she could see any way for them to come back from this. But there must have been a way. If there was no way to make this better then he would have just broken up with her.

Right?

"I did. I usually do. I've been playing this game for a while." Said Serizawa. He heard the bed creak behind him. She was scooting forward. He risked a glance behind him. She was in one of her night dresses, this one had Sailor Venus on it, and her hair was down. It was probably getting to be about bedtime. He didn't know. His phone was on the charger where it had been for the past few days. Time didn't matter. Dates didn't matter. He was just there, existing, in the moment.

If he existed in the moment then, maybe, everything would be ok.

The past was painful and the future was uncertain.

"Longer than I've been alive?" asked Mob

"Probably." Said Serizawa

"You're really good at it." Said Mob. She was sitting directly behind him, now. If he leaned back he would have been in her lap. Her aura tried to bond with his but he kept on pulling away.

"I've had a lot of practice….do you want a turn?" asked Serizawa. That was the polite thing to do, offer her a turn. He had certainly been playing long enough. He felt her behind him. He knew what she probably wanted. The way she was so close, the way her aura felt, the fact that they hadn't in days…

But he couldn't.

Because he couldn't shake the thought of her wrapped around Reigen. Of her kissing Reigen. Of her, probably, coming apart under Reigen. Or on top of him. Whichever she felt like.

"No. I'm fine." Said Mob. She didn't want that per say, she just wanted to be near him. She wanted him to come up there and just be near her. To hold her and tell her he loved her. She wouldn't mind. She wouldn't even mind if he started up on his ideas about the life that he wanted them to have together. That big, terrifying, adult life.

But she was an adult and that was what adults wanted.

"We can watch TV if you want to." Said Serizawa

"Ok…but I want you to come here. I miss you." Said Mob. She didn't care if he hadn't showered in days. She didn't care if she could see how shiny his hair was in the glow of the TV. She didn't even care if he forgot to brush his teeth again. She just wanted to know that he…she needed to know that he was there, if that made even a lick of sense.

"Are you tired? We can go to bed if you want to." Said Serizawa. He was tired, sort of. Sleepy. He was always sleepy. He woke up feeling tired every single morning. He went through his days feeling tired. He lived his life sleepwalking from one moment to another.

"…not really but we can if you want to. I mostly just want to lay here with you…like we used to. We used to just lay together and watch TV or talk…I miss it." Said Mob. She had heard, once, that you never knew what you had until it was gone. She missed it. She missed knowing that he was there and that he cared about her. She needed someone to care about her.

Master Reigen still hadn't so much as texted.

But this had nothing to do with that. This had to do with the fact that she loved Serizawa and she wanted them to go back to the way that they were before.

"….I miss it too…" said Serizawa. He got up, slowly, because he had been sitting there for hours and hours. He missed holding her. He missed it so much. She wanted him to hold her and he'd hold her. Even though she had let Reigen hold her, probably. That blissed out feeling…holding her afterwards and just basking in the afterglow…she had shared that with Reigen.

She wanted to share this with him now.

All he had to do was climb up there and hold her. That was it. But then why did it feel like he was trying to climb a mountain? It was just his bed and she was there, his girlfriend. The love of his life. His reason and his life. She was asking for him. She was asking for him, not Reigen. She could have easily gone to Reigen but she didn't. She wanted to be with him.

Of course the cynical part of him chimed in and said that Reigen probably didn't want to be with her anymore. Not after the fight that they had over her.

He hated the cynical part of him.

Mob made room for him. He really did need a shower…yesterday. But this was fine. He hadn't held her while he was awake in days. Did this mean that he forgave her? Did he forgive her? Did he want them to go back to normal? Or was he just doing this because she asked? Did he even want to be with her anymore or was this just….if he didn't want to be with her anymore then he would have broken up with her.

He wanted to be with her. Not break up with her.

She didn't know which one was worse.

But she said nothing. They watched something, not EVA, because she only wanted to associate EVA with good feelings. They watched TV, her homework could be finished tomorrow morning, and eventually she drifted off. She woke up in the night and remembered to brush her teeth. She didn't know what time it was but he was still asleep.

Their auras bonded again.

Of course by the time morning rolled around they were back to being apart.

He was back there at his spot playing videogames. He had, at some point, eaten the cup noodle she had made for him last night. Hopefully he heated it up. Cold cup noddle that had been sitting out all night? Ick. She didn't know when he had eaten it but she figured that the polite thing to do would have been to make him breakfast anyway. Cereal and milk, of course.

That was the last of the milk.

Which meant that she needed to head down to the store and get more. They were running low on a few things. She had some money saved up…she'd need to get another job. Adults had jobs and she was an adult so she needed another job. She could not go back to work for Master Reigen after all of that. She could not just walk back through the office door like nothing had happened. She could not just pretend that nothing had happened. Master Reigen, certainly, would not want to pretend that nothing had happened. Besides, from what she had seen there wasn't really an office to go back to and if there was work to be done then…then Master Reigen would have called her.

He still hadn't called her.

He hadn't said a single word to her since they had sex. Nothing. Not even to yell at her for what she had done, and he had yelled at her, before, when they went their separate ways. Did he…was this the same? Had they gone their separate ways? There's a rock in Mob's stomach when she thinks about it. The fact that he very well could have been gone from her life forever. The fact that it was all her fault that he was gone from her life in the first place. The fact that she had been the one to mess up everything….the fact that she could so easily end up alone because of all of this.

This was all her fault.

She was an adult, now, and had to take responsibility for her actions.

So she would go to the store and get some more milk. She would get some more cup noodle, too, and another box of cereal. Iced pops, too, because they didn't have any. Rice, probably, because they needed real food. She'd have a shopping list like mom did. Mom kept a shopping list that she added to every time she ran out of something. That was a part of basic household management, mom had said.

Mob wished that she had listened to her mom more.

Because mom had just been trying to teach her how to be an adult. Mob was an adult now and she had so much to figure out and it was just so much but she could do it. She was an adult and she would take care of her household and take care of Serizawa and fix what she broke and do her homework and all that other adult stuff.

But first she had to make breakfast.

"Here. It's cereal." Said Mob. She put a bowl of cereal and a glass of water, they were out of milk, on the table next to him. He looked down at it.

"It's breakfast time?" asked Serizawa. For a moment, when he felt her aura shift and hear her shuffling around, he thought that she had actually come back from school and wherever else she went during the day. For a moment he had forgotten that it was probably morning.

She had made him breakfast.

She still loved him.

If she wasn't still in love with him then she would have just gone back to her family or gone to stay with Reigen or found someone else to be with because she could so very easily find a new boyfriend. She was Mob. She was perfect. Practically perfect. Practically perfect in every way.

"Yes. I made cereal. We're out of milk and a few other things so I'll be late coming home tonight. I think I'll find a job, too, because we need money to buy things like food and stuff. I don't know how much you have but mom always said that the cost of living was so high that women had to go to work now and that there was no choice to it. Also it would be nice to…to help out." Said Mob. Mom had a lot to say about the cost of living, dad too. She never really worried about it. Now she did. She wondered what the cost of living even meant. It wasn't like they literally charged you for being alive, right?

"You don't have to worry about that. I still have plenty of money from when I worked for…we'll be fine." Said Serizawa. They were still a we. She still considered them to be a we. She was thinking about him, about them, about their life and their household and all of that. She still loved him, she still cared, and she still wanted them to be together.

"I know but I should help. That's what you're supposed to do when you're with someone in a relationship. I'm an adult and I want to help contribute." Said Mob as she ate her cereal. Yuck. This was just plain flakes. Not frosted or fruity or chocolatey or anything. She'd have to get them some proper cereal when she went to the shops later.

Would Master Reigen have sent her around to the shops or would he have done the shopping himself?

Don't think about that. Don't even let yourself begin to imagine a life with him.

"…you're right." Said Serizawa after a while. If she wanted to contribute then she could contribute and she was an adult, a young one but an adult, certainly not a child, so there was no stopping her anyway. She just wanted to help out, that was all. Relationships were partnerships. Not that he had ever been in one before. Not that he could even remember his parents being together. But she was a girl and girls did the shopping and the cooking and stuff, traditionally. He didn't know why it was tradition, just that it was. Maybe they liked it? He'd ask her later, when she wasn't eating.

Maybe it was just instinct. He had done his research into the mysteries of the female mind when he started this relationship with her and learned a lot. Women had a nesting instinct, he had read, and they did that when they were comfortable in the homes that they made with their partners. It was all instinct. She was that comfortable with him that she wanted to do all of this…to contribute to their household. THEIR HOUSEHOLD. The one that they had built together.

That she was building with him. Not Reigen.

For a moment he wanted to take her and hold her and kiss her and never let her go. But he didn't. It was still hard. As quick as his mind came up with that impulse it was replaced by thoughts of her and Reigen. The two of them together. Her sharing herself with Reigen. Not even because she just wanted to have sex and there was an available and willing man nearby. Because she loved Reigen.

He ate his cereal.

It tasted like nothing.

And not just because it was plain flakes.

"I'll get the sugary kind. These are plain, which I don't really like. I'll get you the plain kind of you like them. Well I guess that I'll get whatever the store has. My mom gets our food at Costco but that's too far. I hope the store here has a lot of different kinds of cereal. Most places don't and the bags are really small. I'll get what they have I guess. If you want anything specific you can tell me. I can carry a lot with my powers." Said Mob as she ate. She sat on her knees on the bed, careful not to spill anything. Right. Laundry was a thing too. She'd figure it out. Mom had shown her once or twice how to do bedding. Because Mob was getting older and she had to do her own bedding for reasons.

Oh. Right.

For a moment Mob was struck with a sudden burst of fear. The walls shook a little, just a little, and nothing broke. That was good, she had just finished putting the last of the plastic models back together. How Serizawa did that for fun she would never know. So many tiny pieces. They wanted to be back together, everything that broke always wanted to be back together, but finding the pieces had been the trouble.

She had broken this but it would go back together.

She just needed to find the pieces.

But having a baby was not one of those pieces. Not that she was. She was usually pretty good about remembering to take her medicine. Usually. Usually was not one hundred percent of the time….and the doctor said that it had to be at the same time every day….but she was fine. She sometimes skipped a month or two. She didn't know why, she just did. She skipped a month or two and then made up for it by losing half the blood in her body.

Being a girl was a lot of trouble, sometimes.

But really she had nothing to be afraid of. She was probably in one of those skipping months. Sometimes it was two in a row. One time when she was thirteen it had been three in a row and then she was super worried. Then it had been a whole month of it so it all rounded out.

So really she was fine.

"What's wrong?" asked Serizawa. He felt her aura slam into his. She had been afraid of something, really afraid. He let his aura touch hers. Now she felt…less afraid.

"Nothing! I was just thinking about something. It's nothing, nothing that you need to worry about. Nothing that I need to worry about, either. So there's nothing to worry about." Said Mob because she was not talking to Serizawa about this. He was a boy and boys were not supposed to know.

"Are you sure?" asked Serizawa. He was concerned for her. What could scare her in this world? He felt protective, there, because even though she was much more powerful than he was he was still bigger and stronger than her and he needed to keep her safe.

"I'm sure. I'm mostly sure. I'll be less sure later." Said Mob. If she were having a baby then she would have noticed. She had seen pregnant women before and she had seen pictures of her mom back from when she or Ritsu had still been in her stomach. Mob would have definitely noticed if there was another person growing inside of her, so she didn't have to worry about that. If she still hadn't…in a while then she could worry.

Don't explode.

You're fine.

"Sure about what?" asked Serizawa. She was scared again. She was scared and he had to help her with whatever it was that scared her. That was his job. She was still his girlfriend. He still wanted her to be his girlfriend. Even if part of him wanted her to head on over to school already. Only part of him wanted that. The other part wanted her to stay with him in that tiny little world he had made for himself. To stay with him forever. To never, ever, go because when she went outside then he could not account for where she was and, yes, maybe he did still worry about her out there in the world where she could…but she had promised him that she would never cheat on him again.

But a relationship already was a promise of fidelity. That was the point of a relationship. You promised someone that you would be with them forever and only them. Otherwise you were just having sex. That was Serizawa's understanding of it, anyway. What did he know? This was his first girlfriend. This would, hopefully, be his only girlfriend.

He still loved her.

And he didn't know any other women anyway.

"Nothing. Nothing that you need to worry about. This is about me, that's all. Do you like your cereal? I can make you something else." Said Mob. She thought that she was quite clever, there, in the way that she changed the subject so seamlessly. Serizawa, while not having been the most social man in Japan by a longshot, had enough of the basics of socialization down that he saw what she did.

Hiding something?

What was she so worried about?

He wished that she would tell him. Whatever it was it couldn't have been as bad as what his mind was coming up with. She had promised. He reminded himself that she had promised. She had promised and she was not going to break her promise. She still wanted to be with him and if she had not wanted to be with him then she would have broken up with him.

Everyone made mistakes sometimes.

He knew that he had made his fair share of them. Reigen still hadn't called him or anything. Not to say sorry for sleeping with Mob, not to say sorry for hitting him so many times, not to say sorry for all of the mean things that he had said, not even to tell Serizawa off for hitting him and destroying the office. Not even to tell Serizawa that he was so, obviously, completely, totally, fired. Nothing. Total silence.

Of course nobody was stopping Serizawa from picking up his goddamned phone and apologizing to Reigen himself. He had psychic powers, Reigen did not, therefore it was on Serizawa not to react and use his powers against Reigen. Yes. Hitting Reigen back had been wrong, exploding had been extra wrong. Those were the only two things that he had done wrong.

Loving Mob was not wrong.

He should have made it more clear that Mob was his girlfriend. That was on him. But Reigen should not have said such mean things and hit him when he realized the truth of it all. Serizawa could even, with time, eventually forgive Reigen for sleeping with Mob. He had no idea, he had said, that Mob wasn't…available. That Mob was Serizawa's girlfriend.

Maybe he could even forgive Mob, in time.

"You don't have to make me anything else, this is fine…thank you." Said Serizawa

"You're welcome…Serizawa. I…I love you." Said Mob because, well, she had to say it. She had to say it so that he would say it back. She had to hear it. She had to know that he still loved her. Even if he wouldn't look at her. Even if she had to ask him to be near her. Even if he probably hated the ground she walked on she still had to hear 'I love you.'

"I love you too." Said Serizawa. He meant it. He did still love her. He just needed….he needed to forgive her. Forgive and forget, that was how it went. After all, she had forgiven him for helping the president try to take over the world. She had forgiven him for fighting with her when they first met. She had forgiven him for all of the things he had done when he worked for Claw…not that she knew the whole of it.

He had done things that she could never know about.

But if she ever did find out she would still love him. She would because that was the sort of person that she was. She was someone who loved and cared for him. That was why she had…that was why she had started this whole thing with him. That was why she had wanted to be with him. Not because he was there. Not because she was sad and horny, like Reigen had said. Because she cared for him. She did. She really did.

She loved him.

But she had stabbed him in the back.

Betrayed him.

Thrown away everything that they had together.

But she…

But she had…she had betrayed him but she had come back. She had come back and she was trying to take care of him and the home that they shared. She was even sparing him the trouble of heading down to the store, a trek that felt like he had might as well been walking across the entire country barefoot through the snow uphill both ways.

He still loved her.

She loved him

She loved him enough to wash his bowl for him. She loved him enough to make him a sandwich and leave it on the counter for him for lunch. She loved him enough to leave him his toothbrush with toothpaste on it and a cup of water on his tiny table. She loved him enough that she reminded him to text her if he needed anything from the store.

She loved him. That was why she was taking care of him. Like his mom had for all of those years.

The thought makes him feel pathetic. Back to square one. The only thing that changed was that instead of his mother it was his girlfriend who was taking care of him. He hadn't rejoined society at all. He was back to where he had been for years. Since he was twelve. Fifteen years. Back to where he had been for fifteen years of his life. He was thirty one. Almost half his life. As long as his girlfriend had been alive. Same place. Same as it ever was.

Sitting in front of the TV, in the dark, playing videogames, while someone felt obligated to take care of him.

Mob had an obligation to Serizawa.

She was his girlfriend after all. She was his girlfriend and he loved her. Since they had started this he had promised her the Earth and told her that she was right to ask it. She didn't ask it, of course, but still promised it to her. He promised her that he would always love her, be there for her, and take care of her. Well now she wanted to take care of him. She wanted to take care of him.

So that meant that she would go to the shops, get some more food and stuff, and find another job.

Shopping was easy. She had done the weekly shop with mom loads of times. You just had to stay on budget, never deviate from the list, and also buy on sale when you could. That was all. Easy. Very easy because Mob had made the list. Making the list hadn't been too hard. She got all the essentials.

Rice. Milk. Two kinds of cereal. Cup noodle. Tofu. Poke sticks. Ice pops. Eggs for the cup noddle. Vegetables also for the cup noddle. Fruit because fruit was important.

That hadn't been so hard. She didn't know why mom was always so upset when she had to go shopping. Probably because she had to feed twice as many people. Plus kids ate a lot, mom had said. Mob didn't think that she ate that much. This was enough food for the week, the weekly shop was much better than the daily shop, mom had said, because when you shopped weekly you didn't have to rush to the store after work. Mom said that Mob would need know these things for when she became and adult and had a house and a family.

Well she was an adult and she had an apartment. No family yet, the thought continues to be terrifying, but she was an adult. Mom said that she was a child but mom was wrong. What was mom up to know? Probably making dinner. Dad was probably still watching TV to unwind after work, if he was home, sometimes he had to stay late at the office. Ritsu was probably home by now. He was probably in his room doing homework or reading or something like that.

Maybe she should say sorry again.

But she had already said sorry a million times. She had said sorry and he said that he didn't want to hear it. He was mad at her, he was sorry about throwing her on accident with his powers but he was still mad at her. Also Sho was mad at her too, which wasn't as bad but still pretty bad because she liked Sho and he was almost like another brother. Well no everyone was either openly mad at her or trying to hide how mad they were at her.

She had no idea how to fix this.

Apologizing wasn't working at all. She said that she was sorry but everyone either told her that they didn't want to hear it, Ritsu, or pretended like they were ok with it but then proceeded to live in the dark and play videogames twenty four seven, Serizawa. Those were the people she had apologized to. Master Reigen still hadn't said a word to her, she checked her phone all the time but still nothing.

He was mad at her too, probably.

She'd know definitively if he just said something.

She would even take him yelling at her for what she did.

Anything but the silence.

But there was silence from him. Nothing was stopping her from picking up her phone and calling him. Nothing was stopping her from throwing herself at his mercy. She was wrong to…to not listen to him when he told her to wait. She was wrong to just leave after they had sex. She was wrong to love someone while she was in love with him. She was just wrong, very wrong, and she had no idea how to make this right. He would know. He knew everything.

But he wasn't there.

So Mob had to figure out, on her own, how she was supposed to make this right. She had to figure out how she was supposed to make all of this right. She had to be an adult about this. She had to be an adult end of discussion. So she would be an adult. She would do all of the stuff that adults did and maybe in becoming an actual adult it would all come to her.

So that was what she did.

She went home, make dinner which was cup noodle with egg in it and vegetables, and then did her homework. Adult things. She could have hung out with her friends, Tome wanted to look for telepaths again, well ones besides the ones that they knew already, but Mob had to go home to Serizawa. She just wanted to make sure that he was ok. She wanted to be near him to make sure that he was ok and that he still loved her.

Because it was becoming very obvious that Master Reigen didn't.

"How was your day?" asked Serizawa over dinner. That was what you were supposed to ask your girlfriend when she came home. Mob had made dinner for him and the least he could ask was how her day was. Part of him didn't care but the other part wanted to hear one of her monotone, rambling, stories about class and friends and club….he loved her stories. He could listen to her talk for hours and hours.

"It was fine. I went to the store, but you already know that. I did the weekly shop, my mom always said that it was best to go every week instead of every day, that way you don't have to go after work every single day. Not that I went to work. I don't think…I think that I have to find another job." Said Mob

"You really don't." said Serizawa. He could still take care of her. He could still take care of her and keep her at home where she was safe and he could make sure that she wasn't sleeping with Reigen or really anyone else in the world because who could say no to her and there were two point something million people in Seasoning City and since the population was about fifty-fifty that meant that there were millions of other men that she could be with and of course nobody could ever say no to her and she had already cheated on him before but he was also being so terribly possessive by not wanting her to be out of his sight for hours and hours because she had a history of cheating on him, once so far, but that was still a history and-

"I want to find another job." Said Mob. It was dark in here. It was warm in here. It smelled stale in here, like stale air and stale dishes and stale people. The walls were closing in on her, it felt like. She needed to be outside but they couldn't go outside. He was still upset and she had upset him so badly that he was backsliding. This was her fault. She wanted…she needed to be an adult about this and adults had jobs so therefore she needed a job.

Also food was expensive.

"You don't have to." Said Serizawa

"But I want to." Said Mob

"But you don't have to." Said Serizawa

"Why don't you want me to?" asked Mob

"It's not that I don't want you to-" said Serizawa. He did. He did not want her to…but that was so clingy and controlling…but she had cheated on him already. But she promised to never do that again. But a relationship was already a promise that you wouldn't cheat on the other person.

"Do you think that I can't?" asked Mob. She may have been young and weird and clueless but she wasn't dumb or anything like that. She was employable. She had skills, skills were important. Well she had powers…freelance exorcist? No, then she would be competing with Master Reigen. What else could she do? Those Claw guys had jobs, maybe she should ask them. They weren't friends with her or anything but they still seemed pretty nice.

"I know that you can…I think. Are you legally old enough to work?" asked Serizawa. That was a good out. He didn't want her out and about like that, in the least clingy way possible, but he couldn't tell her the real reason. He could not bring it up because if he brought it up then they would have to talk about it again.

"Yes. I'm not a child." Said Mob

"I never said that you were." Said Serizawa

"You made it seem like I was. I'm an adult and adults have jobs." Said Mob

"I know that you're an adult…I mean you're young but you're not a child. I wouldn't be with you if you were a child." Said Serizawa. She knew what age she was and she knew that he knew what age she was, too. She was so obviously not a child. So why did she always think that he thought that she was?

"Then don't talk like I am." Said Mob. She was an adult now. Why couldn't he see that?

"Fine. I'm sorry. Can we please stop fighting?" asked Serizawa. He loved her and he did not want to fight with her. Even when she confessed to cheating on him they didn't fight. He had his fill of fighting for a lifetime and a half.

"We're fighting?" asked Mob

"Yes." said Serizawa

"No we aren't." said Mob

"We are." Said Serizawa

"No we aren't, we're talking. If we were fighting then we would be yelling." Said Mob

"I don't want to fight with you, not about this, or anything really. I love you and I don't ever want us to fight." said Serizawa

"We are not fighting." Said Mob

"Yes we are." Said Serizawa

"What are we fighting about, then?" asked Mob. Her cup noddle began to shake and rattle on the tiny table.

"Whether or not we're having a fight." Said Serizawa holding her cup noodle down with his powers before she made a mess.

"We aren't." said Mob simply.

"Fighting with each other right now or just fighting about having a fight?" asked Serizawa

"….I don't know. I want to talk about something else. How was your day?" asked Mob. Now her head hurt. The walls were still closing in and now her head hurt. That was not a fight, fights had yelling and screaming and stuff. That had just been them talking about stuff.

"It was…it was a day, I guess." Said Serizawa. The truth was he didn't even notice it passing. One minute she had left the house and the next she was opening the door. He had almost asked her if she had forgotten anything but then he noticed the shopping bags that she was carrying. A whole day. An entire day had passed him by.

He still felt terrible.

"Did you win again?" asked Mob

"A few times." Said Serizawa

"That's good. I'm glad." Said Mob. She really was. He loved videogames and she loved it when he won. Maybe then he could be happy. Happy-ish. In the same prefecture as happy.

"What about you? How was club?" asked Serizawa. He wanted to hear her stories. Anything but more fighting. He could not take any more fighting.

"It was alright but it's still not the same, not since everyone left. Well most everyone. We'll be together in high school, though. I'll make time for club and stuff, it's important to me. I'll make time for you too, though! You're….you're important to me too…" said Mob

"So are you." Said Serizawa when he wanted to say something more along the lines of 'If I'm so important to you then why did you sleep with Reigen?' but a lot less politely. But he, of course, would never say anything like that. He loved her and one did not talk to the woman they loved like that.

Mob knew that he was still mad at her. Everyone was mad at her. Rightfully so. She messed up. She hadn't been the only person who messed up, Master Reigen should have just been with her if he loved her, but she should have waited. Even though three years was way too long to wait. Even though it didn't seem, at the time, that he wanted to be with her.

Well now it seemed like he really didn't.

And it hurt.


	20. Your Guilty Heart

Food had no taste.

Serizawa had no idea what he was eating. It could have been rice, it could have been cereal, it could have been cloves. It didn't matter. It had no taste. He didn't even know what meal this was. Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? He had no clue. The blinds were down and a room was dark. She was sitting opposite of him at the tiny table.

"….which my mom always said was lazy but I don't think that it is. I'm tired and it's still food so…." She was talking about her day. He was fading in and out. He used to love it when she talked. Not he could barely pay attention. He wanted to get back to his game, or to get to sleep. Something other than existing in this moment in this reality.

"…..wasn't sure what you liked so I just guessed. This has all the food groups in it, I think, so it's healthy…" she was sitting across from him in her school uniform. Had she just come from school or was she going to school? He didn't know. He had no idea what time it was. What day it was. His phone had been living on it's charger for…an amount of time. He was reluctant to sever it's umbilical cord and check to see how much the world had turned without him.

"….can learn to cook, too, if you want. You used to cook for me a lot so I should return the favor, Serizawa. Unless you like this, then I can just keep on…." She looked the same so at least it hadn't been years and years again. Her hair was the same length, she was the same height, and she was still so, incredibly cute and perfect…but no. She wasn't perfect. If she were perfect then she never would have hurt him.

"….always said that she was tired. I get it now. Work is hard when you're an adult. She called me today and asked me to come….." she had hurt him. She said that she was sorry but she still hurt him. He said that he forgave her but he didn't fully mean it. How could he? She had gone and slept with someone else. It was his fault, obviously, because he hadn't been enough for her. He always knew that he was not enough for her, that he could never be good enough for her, and now she had gone and-

It hurt.

"…can't because Ritsu is still mad at me. I tried texting him and calling him but he won't pick up. Sho and I had a fight, too, but I didn't hurt him or anything and he didn't hurt me. Ritsu still says that I ruined his life even though mom and dad aren't mad. I don't know what he's so upset about if mom and dad aren't mad at him. Mom said that they aren't mad at me anymore but I…." even being near her hurt. He had always divided his life into before and after. Before he shut himself away from the world and after. Before Suzuki and after. Before he met her and after. Because they started all of this and after. Now he had a new one, before she cheated on him with Reigen and after. He knew that he could never go back to the before. If this were the before he could have held her and played with her hair and listened to every word she said…but this was not the before. This was the after.

And it hurt.

"….still mad at me. You're still mad at me too, I think, and I just don't know how to make it better. But I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm an adult and I'm going to take care of you until you get better. This is all my fault…." If it hurt so much then why did he still have the growing need to be beside her? To give her all of the love that he could? To hold her tight and to keep her safe. From what he did not know. He just knew that he needed to keep her safe from whatever could hurt her. He just knew that she was his and he was hers. That was why she had stuck around. That was why she still hadn't gone home. That was why she was with him and not Reigen.

"….take a shower tonight? You don't have to if you don't want to. I saw you brushed your teeth today, so that's good. It's progress I think." She was done eating now. Oh. He had finished too. She was tossing out their empty takeout containers. Convenience store dinner. Or lunch. Or breakfast.

She tossed out their dinner and then changed out of her uniform. He went back to playing…whatever it was that he was playing. He did glance at her, briefly, and then looked away. He wanted…but eh couldn't. The thought of being with her like that again…it hurt.

This whole thing just hurt.

So he played videogames in the dark.

He played videogames while she hovered around the room they shared together. She collected the accumulated trash and tossed it out. She swapped out the bedding….when was the last time he changed it? He didn't know. She swapped it out for new bedding, though. She did her homework, too, but that was just her sitting still. She was so still that if not for her aura then he would have had no idea that she was even there. She was there, right there, in the periphery of his perceptions. She was quiet. Sometimes she clicked her mechanical pencil, sometimes she sighed, sometimes she turned a page, and sometimes she wrote so fast that the room was filled with the sound of graphite scraping against paper.

She was still there.

And it hurt.

But he still wanted her there.

He still loved her. She cheated on him but he still loved her. Wasn't that pathetic?

Or was that love? When you loved someone you were supposed to forgive them. Even if they did betray you. Even if they did…but she said that she was sorry and that she would never do it again.

He's tempted to ask her. To make sure that she was telling the truth. To make sure that he was never going to have to…to have to know that….to have her…to make sure that she was never going to do it again. That he could trust her when she went out into the world. Trust that she wasn't seeing someone else. Trust that she wasn't sleeping with someone else.

He could not trust her.

He just…how was he ever supposed to trust her again. She slept with Reigen. She loved Reigen. She was still in love with Reigen. For all he knew when she left the house, apartment, she was going to…but she said that she wasn't. She said that she wasn't and he needed to trust her again because without trust there could be no love and jealousy would drive him crazy.

But he had every right to be jealous.

Because she had still cheated on him. His girlfriend and best friend….together. Double the hurt. Betrayed so completely….how was he ever supposed to trust anyone ever again? How was he ever supposed to go out in the world with people and just…trust them? How? How could he possibly rejoin society now?

He wasn't.

So he played videogames.

Mob had no idea what she was supposed to do.

Well her mom said that she was supposed to come home. First mom yelled it a lot but now she was asking nicely. Mom even said that she was sorry, which was rare because moms never had to say sorry to their kids, mom had said so. But now mom was being really nice when she asked Mob to come home. Not that she would. Ritsu was still mad at her and so was Serizawa.

She had no idea how Master Reigen felt, of course, because he had yet to call. Or text. Or anything.

Nothing at all.

So he must have been mad at her, too. Even though she loved him. Even though he loved her. He was still mad and there was nothing that she could do about it. Or maybe there was. But she had to put the pieces of one thing back together at a time. Right now she had to put the pieces of her and Serizawa's relationship back together. She just didn't know how to do so beyond taking care of him and staying by his side.

Even though the walls kept on closing in on her.

Even though she had started looking forward to the times she spent away from him more than the times she spent with him.

Even though he really, really needed to take a shower. Or at least change clothes. She had even done the laundry so he would have plenty of options of things to wear. Except he just wore the same pajamas over and over and over again. He mostly stopped showering, too, but she had at least gotten him to brush his teeth every day. The trick to it was to leave a cup of water and his toothbrush next to him on his tiny table. She just had to figure out how to get him to shower and shave and eventually go back outside.

This was all her fault.

But she could fix this.

Because she was an adult and adults atoned for their mistakes.

So she would stay with him and she would take care of him. She didn't know she was supposed to take care of him beyond feeding him and cleaning up after him and other such things so she stuck with what she knew. That was how her mom took care of her family, anyway. She wondered if mom ever felt like the walls were closing in on her, too, and the world was small and cramped and she just had to go outside and-

Or maybe Mob was the only one who felt like that.

Serizawa didn't feel like that. He liked how small the world felt when he was in his room. That was why he always kept the blinds opened, before, because it was so easy to backslide, but now he as backsliding and it was all her fault. She didn't know who to get him to stop backsliding. She didn't know how to get him to forgive her. She just did not know. Usually she would just ask Master Reigen about things that she didn't know. Well now she couldn't because she had slept with him and ruined their entire…it was ruined. That was all her fault, too. Everything was her fault and she had no idea how to fix it. She just didn't know enough, wasn't smart enough.

So she decided to ask a smart person.

At some point Mob and Minegishi had become friends.

Well to Mob they were friends. She had come to the flower shop days ago asking for a job. She could control plants like Minegishi did so she figured she'd get the job. She did, but only a few days a week, because of labor laws. The other few days she spent working at a convenience store with some other ex Claw guys/new friends. She had become friends with them, too, but she was going to talk to Minegishi now because that was who she was with.

It wasn't like she never talked to him. She did, mostly because he was the only person she worked with at the flower shop and she needed to talk to someone or she'd be lonely. They had a boss but he only showed up to pay them, Minegishi said. It was just her and Minegishi so she figured she should make friends with him. He was Serizawa's friend after all.

She didn't tell him what she did, obviously, because he was most definitely going to take his friend's side in that. Also she did not want people to know what she had done.

She didn't talk to him about that but she did talk to him. He liked books and he was always reading so she asked him. He was a person of few words, mostly words like 'yes' and 'no' and 'why do you care?'. He wasn't mean, though, she knew because Serizawa had told her a while ago that Minegishi talked to everyone like that. It had nothing to do with whether or not he liked them. So Mob kept on talking to him. She liked making friends, well most people did, but she could always use more friends.

Especially since she had lost the best friend she ever had and possibly the love of her life.

Or maybe she was just being dramatic. Maybe Master Reigen was just mad at her but not so mad that he never wanted to speak to her again. After all there was no way that they could do all of that together without him ever talking to her again.

Because that would hurt.

But Mob did not want to think about that. Mob didn't want to think about anything having to do with that whole situation. That was another reason why she talked to Minegishi, when she worked with him. Work at the flower shop gave her a lot of time to talk. She also worked at the convenience store with Sakurai and Koyama but there was more to do there, so less talking. She liked it, having a lot to do. The more she had to do the less she could think about what she had done.

Talking was something to do.

So she talked more than she usually did. She didn't always know what to talk about so she mostly just talked about what came to mind. She learned a few things about people that way. She learned that Sakurai really did grow up in an orphanage, they called them children's homes now but they were the exact same thing, and he used to curse all the other kids because they picked on him. He also wanted to be the greatest ronin in Japanese history. Not a samurai because samurai had families and stuff, which he did not. That made Mob sad for him and she said so. He looked at her like she was crazy when she said that.

Then he said that she was nothing like President Suzuki. He also called her President Kageyama.

Which made no sense because she was, obviously, not president of anything. She stacked ramen cubes for nine hundred yen an hour. She didn't want anything more than that and she said so. Then Koyama called her humble and said that she was much better than Suzuki. Well she was but she didn't think that it needed saying. Well she thought that she was. Was cheating on your boyfriend worse than leveling most of downtown, trying to take over the world, kidnapping people, and ruining lives?

She didn't ask.

She talked a lot but not about that. She asked people about their lives, partially to get them talking and partially because other people's lives were interesting. Koyama's life was interesting. He used to be an underground fighter before he joined Claw and he did that because he liked violence. That was a weird thing to like, hurting people always made Mob feel terrible. She didn't much care for fighting and Koyama apologized to her, a lot, and said that he was done with all of that, also a lot. Then he called her President Kageyama.

A lot.

She was not President of anything! Not even the Telepathy even though Tome offered it to her.

Minegishi never called her President Kageyama, she was grateful for that. He never called her anything. The only conversation that he ever initiated with her was asking what she was doing there when she went in looking for a job. It was nice of him to put in a good word with the boss. That was how she ended up growing flowers for twelve hundred yen an hour with potential for raises. Minegishi got paid more, he said, because he was the more senior person there. She asked him why he got paid more and he told her. Then he told her not to go around asking stuff like that.

He was a really smart guy. Nice, too, to tell Mob about a social rule that she didn't know.

He told her when she broke a social rule. He always did because he was a nice person even if he did seem kind of prickly sometimes, like a cactus or a rose or one of those bushes with thorns to protect the berries. He could be prickly but he was still her friend. That was why he always told her when she was messing up. Like when she asked him why he had no eyebrows.

He was born like that, he said. Then he told her not to point that out.

She asked him what manga he liked.

He said that he didn't read manga because he was an adult and adults didn't need pictures in their books to understand what was happening.

She asked him what anime he liked.

He said that he didn't watch cartoons because he was an adult but he liked documentaries about things but he didn't watch much TV.

Same for videogames.

He called her a child, too, which she did not like. She was not a child, she was an adult. He just rolled his eyes when she said that and said that there was nothing in the world that could ever make him want to be fifteen again. Then he patted her on the head and said that she was adorable and that it was obvious why Serizawa kept her around.

Serizawa did call her cute a lot.

Well he used to. He used to say it all the time. He used to tell her that she was cute and adorable and pretty and perfect and-and-and a lot of other really nice things. Now he didn't say much of anything to her at all. It hurt. It hurt because he used to…he used to act like he loved her. If he stopped loving her then she would have nobody left that loved her.

Also she ripped his heart out like a Mortal Kombat fatality.

If he was feeling what she felt on the day that Master Reigen had…on the day that she THOUGHT that Master Reigen had rejected her…then a Mortal Kombat fatality would have been preferable.

But she tried not to think about that. She went to work so she wouldn't have the time or the brain space to sit there and chew on what she had done. She just needed a break. She needed a break from that tiny apartment where it was always dark and smelled like stale air and stale food and stale sweat. Where the walls closed in on her making it difficult to even breathe sometimes. Also she needed money. She was an adult and adults needed money to live and stuff.

Minegishi was wrong. She was not a child.

A child would not have been able to have two jobs and go to school and live with her boyfriend. She was not a child. She was fifteen, not a child at all. She didn't know why people still thought that she was. She didn't know why mom said that she was, either. Mom wanted her to come home. Mom also said that Mob was just a child and could not move out or run away or whatever it was that Mob was calling it, mom had said. Mom had also said that Mob was not allowed to date boys unless they were just that, boys. Mom also said that Mob had no idea how in over her head she was and she just needed to come home. Mom also said that she was being stubborn and stupid. Mom also said sorry and that she just wanted her to come home.

Well Mob was not going to. Not until she fixed what she broke with Serizawa and Ritsu stopped being mad at her. Besides, adult life wasn't so bad. She was making new friends and making money and could do whatever she wanted, mostly. Of course staying up late on a school night was dumb and she had to start bringing home food from the convenience store for dinner because one could not live on candy, ice cream, chips, and soda. Whatever. She could do this. She could do this and she did do this.

She was an adult and she could handle this.

Even though everyone said that she was just a kid.

At what point did you stop being a kid and start being an adult? Legally it was eighteen but people still called eighteen year olds kids, too. She asked Minegishi, he was really smart so he'd know. He said that you stopped being a kid when sugary foods started tasting too sweet and getting up out of bed in the morning became an utter chore. That made sense. Well it sort of made sense. Getting out of bed in the morning was a chore but everyone still treated her like a kid.

He said, again, that she was so obviously still a kid.

Because she was fifteen.

People always saw age and nothing else. She was not a child. She wished that she could just make the years go by faster. If they did then she could be older. Then all of this would pass. But it was passing. Maybe. Maybe this was one of those things that would just pass and everything would go back to…would come to being something akin to normalcy.

Master Reigen still hadn't called her.

Or texted her.

So that was not normal.

She could have called him but she was too…busy. Yes. She was too busy. She was too busy to call him or text him or anything like that. She was too busy to figure out what she would even say to him. Well beside sorry for making him and Serizawa fight. That was something that she was definitely sorry for. Well she was sort of responsible for that. Master Reigen knew that she was Serizawa's girlfriend and he still…they still…but she never would again.

Even if she wanted to.

She did. She wanted to be with him so badly but she had also made a promise. She had to keep her promise. Serizawa still loved her and she had hurt him so badly that he had given up on rejoining society and now he was going to live in his room forever and he was never going to go outside again and she was going to have to take care of him for the rest of his life in that tiny dark room day in and day out until one of them died and then she'd probably have to take care of his ghost, too, and this was all her fault and-

"We're supposed to water the plants, you know, not drown them." Said Minegishi barely looking up from his book. She could control plants, yes, but she didn't understand them. That one was crying out that it wasn't thirsty anymore, in that way that plants communicated. He had finally started listening, thanks to her. She had been the one who opened his eyes on that awful day. This level of carelessness was odd for her. She was usually so fastidious in her work. Just a fastidious little chattering worker bee. She had been really quiet, too.

Blissful silence.

Because he could not listen to her go on and on and on anymore. She did talk. She looked quiet but she could really get going. The only problem was that she was such a bore when she got going. The only things she talked about were shows and manga and characters and all that teenage garbage. Well he at least knew what she and Serizawa had in common now. That man was such a kid sometimes.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I was just…thinking." Said Mob. Minegishi would have raised an eyebrow, if he had any.

"Don't hurt yourself." Said Minegishi. He was testing her. Everyone had their limits, even her. She must have had some invisible button that was just waiting to be pushed. Better he see now what upsets her then wait years and years until she decides to kill everyone.

Of course he had defected to her side, so maybe Suzuki wasn't entirely crazy with his whole 'back to the drawing board' shoot pure psychic energy at everyone idea.

Not that she was anything like Suzuki. Suzuki didn't bring him cans of coffee from the convenience store and recommend manga to his subordinates.

But she had still lifted skyscrapers into the stratosphere. She had still set the sky on fire. She had still pulled down satellites and used them as projectiles. She had still put her body back together from the particle layer, well that was according to Shimazaki anyway. Still. She had still grown that giant tree that was slowly but surely sucking the life out of his plants.

That was still a living God.

And for some strange reason she had chosen Katsuya Needs-to-be-told-to-brush-his-teeth-and-shower Serizawa.

The world had officially gone pear shaped.

"I does hurt when I think about all of this. You're right." Said Mob. She didn't much like thinking about what she broke but she had no idea how to stop thinking about it. None whatsoever. Her mind just kept on spinning in circles over and over again. She wondered if there was a way to make it stop. Sometimes people drank to forget, she had heard that expression before, but she didn't much feel like taking up drinking and she was only fifteen anyway.

"Just don't drown the plants." Said Minegishi. He had no idea what it was that she was thinking about and he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. She could be talkative, actually, when she wanted to be. He, of course, did not feel like listening to whatever drama went on in her life. He'd had enough of teenage girls back when he had been a teenage girl.

He was not going back to that circle of hell known as adolescence.

He wondered why she put up with that hell. She didn't have to put up with whatever drama was going on in her life. Probably some bullshit from her friends or classmates or something. She was the most powerful being on Earth and she still went to…high school? No, middle school. She still put up with all the middle school drama, which in Minegishi's experience was even worse than the high school drama. Her. The girl who had literally saved the world.

So, yeah, nothing like Suzuki. At least humanity had that going for it.

"I won't…I mean that I'll try not to…." said Mob. That poor plant was drowning and it was all her fault. Now something else was suffering because of her carelessness and selfishness. She made the plant grow big and tall but it just broke out of it's pot. Mob quickly caught the mess of dirt and pottery shard with her powers and cleaned up. The plant and dirt into a new pot, the pottery shards back together and the cracks fused shut with a burst of pink and blue psychic power.

Minegishi would have cocked an eyebrow, if he had one.

Well at least she was useful. Psychokinesis and chlorokinesis and whatever else she had in that bag of tricks of hers. She had the potential to do great and terrible things but from what he had observed she wasn't doing much of anything. She looked tired, if anything, but then again so did he. She always looked tired, though. She worked as often as was legal for someone her age and then she had another job. She mentioned having club activities, too, and studying for her entrance exams.

She didn't mention Serizawa. Not really.

She also seemed like she was trying to stall going home. She never mentioned her family, well, besides the fact that she had a brother and he was the greatest little brother in the history of the universe. She hardly mentioned him, either. Aside from the banalities of life and her various forms of escapism she was tight lipped about everything else. Almost like it was something that she didn't like to mention.

And all of that trailing off.

He sighed.

Well it looked like she had something that she wanted to **talk** about. She'd better not be hoping for Minegishi to impart some kind of feminine wisdom on her or anything. He was about two decades beyond all of that. The best he could do was listen and try to keep the snark in check. Try being the operative word.

He wondered if Suzuki ever spilled his guts to anyone. Heh. Maybe that was what he kept Serizawa around for.

"Whatever you have to say just say it and stop trailing off like that." Said Minegishi not looking at her. Mob blinked and stared. She stared and she stared and she stared. She got so lost in staring that she didn't notice that she was watering the floor until she felt water soaking through her school socks.

"I know that sometimes guys say things like 'nice stems' but they aren't literally stems. The only thing that you're going to grow by watering your shoes like that is a bad case of athlete's foot." Said Minegishi. Mob caught the water with her powers and put it back into the water can as best as she could.

"…we're friends, right?" asked Mob. Minegishi put his bookmark back in. Yup. One of those conversations. He reminded himself that he needed to stay in President Kageyama's good graces. She wouldn't always be fifteen and annoying. It was better to be her friend than that guy who made her feel like crap back when they worked together when she was in middle school.

"If you'd call us that." Said Minegishi

"I would…I mean I think that I would…because you're always friendly towards me and I'm friendly towards you." Said Mob

"You have very low standards for friendliness." Said Minegishi. Yup, more Serizawa-isms. That guy was convinced that they were best buddies for all time. He was also convinced that Suzuki was a good guy and actually cared about them. What must it have been like to walk through the world thinking the best of everyone like a moron?

"I don't think that I do. I think that you're nice, in your own way. I think that we're friends. Are we friends?" asked Mob. That was not an answer. She could say that they were friends until she lost her voice but that didn't make it true. Friendship was a two way street. Master Reigen had taught her that.

Don't think about him.

Don't think about what happened.

Don't think about how he still hasn't said one word….

Just don't.

"Sure, why not?" said Minegishi. Friends with his former coworker's fifteen year old, world saving, shoe watering girlfriend. Yup. This was exactly where he thought he'd be at thirty three. Traveled the world, tried to take it over, killed a shit ton of people, and now he was besties with the most powerful esper in the world.

"Ok. Are you friends with Serizawa too?" asked Mob

"Yes. We're all bestest buddies." Said Minegishi rolling his eyes. The affect was lost on her.

"Are you better friends with him or me?" asked Mob. Probably Serizawa.

"Will you just spit it out? I'm almost twenty years older than you, I don't have a lot of time left." Said Minegishi. He was kidding, obviously, but that did light a fire under her.

"Have you ever done anything bad?" asked Mob

"….no. Claw was an organization of love, peace, and a devotion to the public good." Said Minegishi. He strongly suspected that she had some disorder where she either didn't hear tones or was missing a few social skills. He'd believe either.

"That's not true. Sho's dad lied to you. I'm sorry that he lied to you but he did." Said Mob. Poor Minegishi. Serizawa talked about Sho's dad sometimes. Very rarely but he talked about how sad he was that all the good times, the times that he thought were good, were actually lies. Years and years and years of lies on top of lies on top of lies.

Was she really any better?

"Well thank you for showing me the light. I'm glad that we could have this friendship affirming talk." Said Minegishi.

"I'm glad too. I mean I just wanted to talk to somebody about this but I also don't want to but I also do but if I tell anyone they'll probably hate me for the rest of my life and I don't want that. I don't want that but I also don't know how to fix this and you're super smart and I just have to tell somebody and I just have to figure out-" said Mob

"What did you do? Forget to thank the bus driver?" asked Minegishi

"No, I never forget to do that. I…have you ever hurt somebody so badly that they decided to live in their room forever and stop showering and only play videogames for the rest of their life?" asked Mob in one breath. Minegishi stared at her.

"We're talking about Serizawa right now, aren't we? And no, I've never hurt him that badly. He's too damn sensitive for his own good…" said Minegishi. Well there it was, trouble in paradise. Who would have thought that a relationship between a fifteen year old girl and a thirty one year old man would end up being plagued by problems?

"I think that I just hurt him." said Mob softly

"How? He's so completely in love with you I doubt there's a thing in this world that you could do that would bother, much less hurt, him." said Minegishi. He and Serizawa had gotten to talking more. Not as much lately but they had talked before. Serizawa's favorite subject, of course, was his girlfriend and how totally amazing and perfect she was.

"I did…and now he's going to spend the rest of his life in his room. I just don't know how to get him out. I've never hurt anyone this badly before and I'm really sorry for what I did…" said Mob

"What did you do? Sleep with his best friend?" asked Minegishi not meaning a word of what he said. That just made it all the more shocking when she nodded.

"Yes. I did. And now he's never leaving his room. I don't know what to do besides take care of him…so I guess that I'm just going to end up taking care of him for the rest of his life." Said Mob softly. Minegishi was, for once, at a loss for words.

What in the ever loving….?

Well looks could certainly be deceiving. That kid in the school uniform and the braids was actually someone who would…well she was young and stupid. She had no reason not to. What could anyone do to stop her? Who could say no to her?

Well Minegishi would. Not that she would ever even ask him. Or maybe she would, for all he knew she was into it. Well he'd gladly take whatever it was that she did to guys who said no to her. He was not into teenagers, he was smart enough not to play with fire, and he was not hurting Serizawa anymore than the guy was already.

His best friend?

Oh. That guy. The one who threw salt around on national TV last October. He was cute and all but Minegishi didn't seen what would compel her to cheat on Serizawa. Not just because Serizawa was such a lovesick puppy over her, either. He really was a nice person, a genuinely nice person, which was why the world was so hell bent on walking up to him and spitting in his face.

Which was just not fair. Not that he had any opinion at all at what President Kageyama got up to. Not that he would allow himself to have any opinion for or against her. She had just proven herself not to be the Godsend of love and goodness that everyone thought that she was. She was a human being and she made bad choices out of, what Minegishi guessed, horniness? Boredom? The desire to collect guys for her harem like that former scar seemed to think that she was?

He had no room to throw stones, anyway. Not that he would ever dream of throwing stones at this particular and particularly stupid teenage girl.

When did this happen? Why did this happen? And why did he become the person that she came to with this? The convenience, probably. Didn't she have anyone…well she probably wanted someone that she didn't think would judge her. He had no room to throw stones, she was right about that, but still…didn't she have a mother? Friends? Randos on the street?

She had better not be looking for some advice. He had none besides don't get caught again.

"I have no clue what you should do besides, you know, don't get caught again." Said Minegishi after a while. Well then. This sure was…something. Something that almost made him nostalgic for the old days of traveling the globe following Suzuki around and occasionally using plants to suck the life out of people.

At least Suzuki never had these problems.

"Oh. Ok. Thank you anyway." Said Mob. Well that settled it. She was a terrible person. She'd might as well ask Sho's dad at this point. They could share tips on being terrible people who ended up breaking Serizawa's trust and making him cry.

"So he's doing the hikikomori thing again?" asked Minegishi. Poor guy. Well it was bound to happen eventually. That guy needed someone to attach himself to or else he was lost. Apparently attaching himself to a teenager had been a bad life choice. Who knew that teenagers made stupid decisions?

"Yes. He is and I…I don't know how to fix this…it's all my fault." Said Mob. She covered her eyes. Right. Keep it together. She tried to keep it together but she felt her powers reaching out and making the plants around her grow. The light peeking through the spaces between her fingers grew dimmer. She felt a hand patting her back.

"There, there….there, there…you're going to be…alright? Just don't get caught again…or don't do it at all…uh…time heals all wounds?" said Minegishi for lack of anything else. Platitudes were better than nothing. He was not good at this and he never had been. Suzuki never would have…. He reminded himself that it was either her or Suzuki. Then again Suzuki never told anyone about his personal problems…if he even had them.

"Thank you. I feel better now." Said Mob taking her hands away from her eyes. Minegishi took a step back from her. He could feel the sheer force of the power contained in her vessel. It was like standing too close to Serizawa had been.

How could one being hold so much power?

"Good. Now start trimming this mess you made." Said Minegishi. Mob nodded. Right. Work. She had to get back to work and stop thinking about things that didn't have to do with work. That was why she worked, so that she wouldn't have to think about life. That was good advice, though. Either don't do it or don't get caught.

Not that she ever would, again.

Because she had hurt Serizawa enough.

She trimmed the plants that she had made grow. She trimmed slowly because she was tempted, again, to check her phone. To see if he had called. Or texted. Or anything. Because she at least expected him to be mad at her for making him fight with his best friend. But Master Reigen probably still hadn't called or texted or anything. He was probably mad at her…but why? He knew that she and Serizawa were a couple but he still asked her out on a date and he still confessed to her and he still kissed her and he still had sex with her. Well they had sex with each other. That had been mutual.

And amazing.

And perfect.

And it could never happen again. Because she had promised. And also Master Reigen probably didn't love her anymore.

Reigen Arataka had no clue what he was supposed to do in this situation.

His business was literally in ruins because he couldn't keep his pants on. At least the insurance was paying out. Nobody thought that he would do that to his own business so they paid to have it remolded. So at least there was that. Not that he had any idea what he was even going to do when the office was done.

Maybe he could go into private investigating, that could be fun. Though they did mostly just investigate cheating spouses. Heh. This could be his superhero origin story. Mild mannered psychic fraud two times best friend and indivertibly ends up in a love triangle with a fifteen year old girl. This drives him to become Private Investigator Man, protector of all relationships! Coming to a manga shop near you!

Heh.

Maybe he could go back to selling watercoolers. That had been lucrative-ish. Soul crushing, too. Maybe he could just chain himself to a desk and work himself into a lifetime of hypertension and anxiety like his father and his father before him. Yeah, that would be it. He could go to one of those employment agencies his mom always sent him links to.

Because things sure as hell were not going back to normal anytime soon.

Mob was certainly never coming back and if she did he didn't know if he would kiss her or kill her. He still…despite all of this he still had feelings for her. Wasn't that just the worst? She was the cause of all of this and he still wanted to be with her. Not that he could, anyway. She was…

She was Serizawa's.

He had maybe broken up with her, though. The thought fills Reigen with more happiness than it should. He should be feeling miserable on Serizawa's behalf. His trust was broken, once again, by someone he considered a friend. Not that Reigen had even the foggiest idea that Serizawa and Mob were even a thing…ok so there were signs but nobody had said anything for sure!

Serizawa needed to work on his communication skills.

And Mob needed to work on her listening skills.

And Reigen needed to work on his not sleeping with Mob skills.

So really everyone was to blame! It was everyone's fault. Mostly Mob's, actually, because she was the linchpin to all of this insanity. How did it not cross her mind, even once, to tell him that she had a…she was in a relationship with…that she was Serizawa's….?

He's not going to hit Serizawa in his Mob stealing face again. That was downright idiotic of him in the first place. Plus Serizawa had no idea that…he had no idea of anything. So it wasn't his fault. Reigen still needed to think that it was, to feel like it was, because then otherwise he'd just end up angrier at Mob and angrier at himself.

And he could not be angry at Mob.

He'd spent days in his apartment binge drinking and chain smoking. Occasionally he threw on a pair of pants, hosed himself down, and found some form of sustenance so he could live another day. That was his life, now. Drinking and smoking and eating and starting then deleting text after text to the girl who started all of this.

Sometimes they went "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Other times they went "Mob, we need to talk. Call me."

Drunk times they went "Mob I love you so much please call me I need to talk to you."

Very drunk times they went "You know what? I don't need you! So you can just fuck off and be with Serizawa if you love him so much! Go on! I don't care! Please come back I need you."

Thank God for voice to text.

Of course he never sent any of those. He never sent any texts to anyone. Not even to Serizawa, the person who he owed an apology to. All the texts he sent to Serizawa just went 'sorry' before he deleted them. How did he say sorry for shattering the man's trust in other human beings, beating him up, and making him lose control of his psychic powers?

But if he didn't say sorry then he would never get his friend back.

If he didn't text Mob he'd never get her back.

He was alone and he would always be alone unless he got up off his ass and did something about the hole he was getting stuck in. The last time he had found himself in this kind of hole he ended up throwing salt around on nation TV and humiliating himself. He just needed to pick up his phone and make his apologies to Serizawa.

Also he had to say something to Mob.

How did she feel right now? He had, essentially, had a one night stand with her. Until this point in his life he had always left in the morning and not looked back. But this was Mob and she…she hadn't been a virgin. Based on several conversations with Serizawa that ship had sailed long ago and was in the process of circumnavigating the globe. Still…he had slept with her. Well she had been cheating on someone who loved her more than life itself, Serizawa's words, but he still….

He still loved her.

He loved her and he needed to talk to her.

So, before he lost his nerve, that was what he said.

"Mob. I need to talk to you. Call me."

Simple and to the point. What he would say to her he did not know but he knew that he needed to…he needed to talk to her.

Mob was watching Serizawa play the first Zelda game when her phone vibrated. She didn't check it, not for about ten minutes. She didn't check it because she didn't want to get her hopes up. It couldn't have been Master Reigen. It wasn't. It was probably just mom asking her to come home again. Yes. It was probably nothing.

She checked her phone.

Then screen erupted in spider cracks.

"What happened?" asked Serizawa. She was home, again. Dinner tonight was more convenience store food. It was pretty good, probably, not that he could taste it. Food still had no taste, not even when she was near. Or maybe because she was near. He didn't know. All he knew was that her aura had just flared and he was still expected to care about…he did still care about…he cared about her.

Even if she did….

But he loved her.

And he was concerned.

"….my phone screen cracked. I'm going to go fix it in the bathroom. Also I have to go to the bathroom…to take a shower. That's what I'm going to do." Said Mob. She wasn't lying, she could use a shower, and she was also going to try and use her powers to fix her phone screen.

She was also going to call Master Reigen.

But Serizawa didn't need to know that. He was still sad and knowing that she was going to talk to Master Reigen would just make him sadder. Besides, it wasn't like she was going to do anything besides talk. She couldn't. She made a promise.

She could not break his trust again.

So that was what she did. She made sure to take a nightshirt in with her when she went into the bathroom. She was going to shower, she was, and she was not just making sure that he thought that she was going to shower. She really was! She turned the water on with her powers to…to make sure that it was hot enough.

While she waited for the water to reach peak 'boiling a human alive' temperature she went into her contacts. Master Reigen was still at the top. She hovered over his picture. Was this wrong, calling him? But she had wanted to hear from him for so long…because she loved him…and that was unfair to Serizawa…but she had no control over who she fell in love with.

She was just going to talk to him, that was all.

Nothing wrong with a little communication.

So she called him and waited. The room filled up with steam. She could hear the sounds of the TV through the door. Through the vent she could hear snippets of a neighbor's conversation. She wondered if anyone could hear hers.

She turned the sink faucet on for good measure, just in case.

It still rang.

And she still wasted water.


	21. Getting Better, Getting Worse

She had been in the shower for a while.

Serizawa thought so, anyway. It seemed like it. He didn't know at what time she went in but she had been in there for a while. For a moment he thinks that she may have slipped and fallen and was drowning! She could…her aura was being weird. Flaring a lot….

For the first time in hours he gets up.

He stretches as eh stands. His joints groan and pop. Crumbs rain down from him and onto the floor like winter snow. His hair stuck to his head, he ran a hand through it. A shower….he hadn't had one in a while…but what was the point? He didn't have anywhere to be, he didn't have anyone to shower for. Not even her. What would be the point? She didn't care about him…or maybe she did.

She brought him dinner.

The empty containers were on the table. He knew that she had bought him dinner, he wasn't that out of it…but now that he really thought about it…she had bought him dinner. She had been concerned and brought him food…and didn't have to but she did.

What was she even doing there?

Mob had no idea what she was even doing.

Well she was calling Master Reigen, obviously but she had no idea what she was going to say. What could she even say? What did he even want to hear?

It still rang.

He asked her to call him. He was the one who said that he wanted to talk but now he was just letting his phone ring. What if he was ignoring her? The thought hurts. That he would….but he had asked her to call him. He had asked her to talk to him. He had been the one who said that they needed to talk. That was what he had said.

Did he change his mind since he sent her that text?

Reigen changed his mind.

The second he saw her name flashing on his screen he changed his mind. No. He could not do this. What was he supposed to say? What in the hell was he supposed to say to her? What was she going to say to him? Would she apologize? Would she try and justify herself? Would she…would she tell him that it hadn't meant…but it had. It had meant everything….but she had still been cheating on….but he still loved her.

Maybe he should be the one to say that he was sorry.

But that made no sense.

But that was just how he felt.

For reasons that Reigen could not identify he felt like he was the one who had to say sorry. But he wasn't. He wasn't the one in the wrong here. He's clearly the one who had nothing to even apologize for…to Mob. He had a world of apologies to make to Serizawa…and maybe that was he should have been doing…not calling Serizawa's girlfriend and-

Serizawa's girlfriend.

Mob is Serizawa's girlfriend.

Well probably not anymore since he went tattling to her mother like a little kid. Was that what she wanted to tell him? That she knew that he was the one who told on her and that she was pissed? Well this was Mob. She could never be…but she had every right to be…but he had every right to be…

What a mess.

Serizawa scratched his nails against his skin. A layer of grease came off under his finger nails. When had he…when was the last time he had been this filthy? He…he remembered being even filthier than this. Even grosser than this. But that had been years and years and years ago. He had been showering every three days at least, more since he left Suzuki, but it had been…he didn't know how long since his last shower.

He hadn't showered since she…since she cheated on him.

He had showered since that awful day. There hadn't been a point, there still wasn't a point. She had still cheated on him but…he looked down at all the take out containers around his little table. She had still taken care of him. She had still gotten him dinner and…and come home….and she even left his toothbrush out for him every day….

She cared about him.

But she had still cheated on him, broken his trust, broken the bonds of their relationship…but she had still come back to him and she still wanted to be with him…but she still loved Reigen. She still loved Reigen and Reigen probably loved her but she had still come back to him. Him. Not Reigen.

She seemed to very far away.

But she was just in the bathroom taking a shower. She was there, right there, just a few feet from him. The bathroom door was right there. She was on the other side taking the world's longest shower. She was right there but she was also just so very far away. So very far away….

He wanted to be with her.

Mob felt alone and wanted to be alone.

Because it had gone to voicemail. It had gone to voicemail and now it was recording her just sitting there and listening to all the water run. When would it run out, the hot water? Before or after he ran out of space in his voicemail? Maybe she should just take a shower and then watch Serizawa play videogames until she got sleepy and went to bed and then she'd just get up and go to school and go to work and then come home and watch Serizawa play videogames until she got tired and went to bed and then she'd get up and-

Her phone rang.

Master Reigen. He was calling her back. He was calling her back and he wanted to talk to her. She wanted to talk to him. So that was what she did. She hit answer.

A moment of silence.

She answered.

Reigen had no idea what he was supposed to do from here. She answered. He could hear running water. He could hear her breathing, maybe, of maybe he was just hearing things that weren't there. She had definitely answered. She answered and she was waiting for him to say something. But what was he supposed to say? What did people usually say in these situations? She cheated on her…Serizawa…with him…what did people say in these situations.

Well he was on the phone.

What did people say on the phone to one another? He honestly forgot. He couldn't remember a thing, not a thing. Not a single thing. All he could remember, all he could think about, was her. Her face looking up at him completely blissed out…her voice wavering, whimpering, gasping, begging, telling him that she loved him….the way she looked afterwards when she…when she probably realized what she had done…

"Hey." What was what he settled on. He had to say something so why not just go with something. Anything.

"Master Reigen?" she sounded quiet there, small. Her voice wavered. She was…was she sad? Mad? Pissed? What was this? She mostly just sounded quiet. Maybe she felt bad. Maybe she felt bad about what she had put him and everyone else including herself through.

"It's me. Thanks for, uh, picking up I guess." Said Reigen

"Why didn't you pick up when I called?" asked Mob

"I don't know." Said Reigen

"You're the one who asked me to call you? If you were planning on calling me then why did you asked me to call you in the first place?" asked Mob

"Because…I don't know. I guess I just thought that it would be easier." Said Reigen

"Easier?" asked Mob

"Yeah." Said Reigen

"What would be easier? I don't understand." Said Mob. Nothing about this situation was easy, nothing at all.

"I don't understand, either. Mob, I cannot begin to understand…" said Reigen sighing.

"Understand what, Master?" asked Mob. What was there to understand? She messed up, plain and simple. She was the one who had…well he should have just been with her in the first place if that was what he wanted…but she should not have cheated….so that part was her fault….this whole thing was her fault…

"Will you quit calling me that? I told you, I'm not that man to you anymore." Said Reigen a bit more harshly than was necessary. She's quiet. If not for the sound of running water he would have thought that she had hung up on him.

"Just Reigen?" asked Mob

"Yeah, just Reigen." Said Reigen

"Because you're mad at me?" asked Mob

"No, because we slept together." Said Reigen through gritted teeth. It felt wrong, just saying it. He slept with Mob. Of his own volition he slept with Mob. He hates himself, a little, for this. He spent so long trying to become ok with this…but how did one become ok with this? Well, obviously, by not caring in the first place. But he was not Serizawa. He's known her since she was eleven and even now…even now afterwards it's still so hard to be ok with this…not even because of what he did to his best, and only, friend…

"Oh." Said Mob. That made sense. The water around her began to float and swirl like she was in a fishbowl. She needed to keep calm. She needed to stop thinking about him. She needed to…but it was hard. She still loved him so much and he probably wanted nothing to There's more silence.

"Mob…just….can we talk?" asked Reigen. They needed to talk about this...to hash this thing out because…because they needed to. No matter how much it hurt. No matter how difficult this would be.

"We're talking right now." Said Mob

"Yeah, I know just….how've you been?" asked Reigen. He cursed under his breath. Of all the things to ask her. Obviously she'd been lousy. He had told her mother the whole…the near whole…story. Obviously Mob was in a world of trouble. That was probably why she was calling him from her bathroom, based on the echo and the sound of running water.

"Fine. How are you?" asked Mob blinking. That question usually came at the beginning of the conversation. Also they were never so…formal. Distant. There's a distance to them, now. Not a good one, if there ever even was such a thing.

"Fine. Just fine. I'm just fine. Perfectly fine." Said Reigen even though he most certainly was not. But he could not tell her just how not fine he was. Just how not fine he had been. He wanted to tell her, to yell at her, to tell her just how he felt…but something was holding him back. Fear of hurting her. Fear of exploding at her, and wasn't that ironic? He was the one afraid of exploding for once. Well he knew what it was like, now, to totally lose control and hurt someone you cared for.

"That's good to hear. I thought that you were mad at me…because you haven't talked to me in days…." Said Mob. Maybe he wasn't mad at her. Maybe he still…but even if he did still love her they could not be together. She was with Serizawa. They were not broken up. Even if felt like they were broken up they were still a couple. Why they were still a couple she did not know. Why he still loved her she did not know.

"I'm not mad…anymore." Said Reigen because he wasn't. He was more hurt than anything. Being mad had just lead him to ruin. His business was in ruins, his friendships were in ruins, whatever he had with Mob was in ruins…but that last one had not been his fault. That was her fault. That was her fault and, yes, he was still mad! But he couldn't be. He needed to stay calm and just…just talk to her. Just try to understand her. Because otherwise he would explode at her and then there would really be no recovery from…if there ever was any way to recover from all of this.

"That's good. I'm glad that you aren't mad at me anymore." Said Mob. There was a silence. He could still hear that water running behind her. That was it? That was all she planned on saying?

"Mob…just…how? How did this….why? Why did you….?" Asked Reigen

"Why did I what?" asked Mob

"Any of this! Why did you...why were you and Serizawa…and why in the hell didn't you say anything?! Mob, you can't just-just do whatever you want!" said Reigen. He ran a hand through his hair. He needed to stay calm. He needed to keep his mouth under control. She was at home, if she exploded and hurt her family then she would never forgive herself.

"About me being his girlfriend?" asked Mob

"Yes!" said Reigen

"Because I wasn't thinking about that. I wasn't thinking about him, I was thinking about you. I was thinking about how much I love you and about how much I wanted to be with you and how good everything felt…I didn't think about that until afterwards…and then I felt really bad…because I wasn't thinking and I messed up and I don't know how to make it right." said Mob

"Mob…you and I…we're…" said Reigen

"I don't know how to fix this." said Mob

"We…we aren't broken." Said Reigen

"I feel like we are. I feel like I broke us apart and I don't know how to put us back together. Usually I can fix things really easily when I break them on accident but things like this are different. I feel like I broke things with everyone I know and I'm just…I'm trying to fix things one thing at a time…and I have to fix things because I'm an adult but…but being an adult is so hard." Said Mob

"…tell me about it." Said Reigen

"Ok. I feel like the walls are closing in on me when I'm at home. It's just always so dark and there's really only one room and the windows are always covered and Serizawa is still mad at me, even though he says that he still loves me, and he won't really talk to me and I don't know how to make it better with him and I think that you might still be mad at me even though you said that you aren't I know that Ritsu's mad at me because he thinks that…well I did tell mom and dad about him and Sho but only because I thought that he was the one who told mom and dad about me and Serizawa, I think, I don't know who else would have told them….and I just…I really don't want to go back home but I don't like to be here because it's just so dark all the time and Serizawa's still so mad at me and he won't leave his room and it's all my fault and I'm going to have to take care of him forever and he'll never rejoin society and it's all my fault and-" said Mob. She was talking really fast now, and really loud. The room was full of floating water spheres. The light was pretty when it refracted off of them. She could see herself in them. Her face was red. Her eyes were watery. Her unshed tears floated up to join the tiny little water worlds floating around the bathroom. There was a silence, a long silence, and Mob wondered if either the water or the steam had gotten into the small cracks that remained in her phone screen.

That would add another problem to her list, but at least that problem would be manageable.

"….are you still…Mob are you with him right now?" asked Reigen. How in the hell….why in the hell….just why? What did she keep going back to Serizawa for? Why did she…did she run away from home to be with him? What was happening in her mid to make her not only go back to Serizawa, when she had so clearly told Reigen that she loved him, and yet she still….she still went back to Serizawa…

What if he hadn't been a rebound?

What if she actually had actual feelings for Serizawa? They had a lot in common. Not just when they'd nerd out together but…they were both espers. They were both afraid of themselves. They had both put their trust in people who lied to and used them….

He needed to stay calm. He could not explode at her. He could not lose her too.

"No. I'm in the bathroom. It's the only other room we have." Said Mob. She pushed the water away from her. They water was coming closer now. She didn't want to ruin her phone. It would have been a manageable problem but still a problem none the less, and she had enough of them as it was. She wished that there was just some easy solution to all of this. That she could just say her apologies and then everything would be ok between everyone. But there were not any easy solutions to all of this.

"…you ran away from home…to take care of Serizawa?" asked Reigen trying his very best to stay calm. Mob. His Mob. It was easier to think that she had just been hurt and fell into the arms of the first guy to show her some comfort. That she just wanted to sleep with someone and Serizawa was the most convenient option. But if he had been then Mob would have just taken whatever punishment her parents gave her and then gone on with her life and left Serizawa to hide away from the world…but that wasn't the way that she…she was not that sort of person.

"I ran away from home because Ritsu and I had a great big fight. Well we had a fight after my parents and I, mostly my mom, had a fight. Then mom kept on saying that I was a kid and she said that as long as I lived under her roof I had to do what she said. Then I decided that I wasn't going to live there anymore because there was just so much fighting and then Serizawa was so sad and mad and he's still sad and mad and I have to take care of him because this is all my fault…" said Mob

"….you're still with him? You're still his….girlfriend." asked Reigen

"Yes." said Mob. She didn't know why she was but she still was. It would have been so easy for him to just break up with her, but he wouldn't, because he still loved her. It was that true kind of love, maybe, the kind of love that made you stay with someone even when they were terrible for you. The true kind of love that Mob wasn't even sure if she had ever felt. She felt that way about…about Master Reigen…but that wasn't right. She wasn't his girlfriend, she was Serizawa's.

"You're still his…girlfriend?" asked Reigen. The word tasted like ashes in his mouth.

"Yes. He doesn't want to break up." Said Mob simply. Until he felt like breaking up with her she was his girlfriend. But that would never happen so she would always be his girlfriend.

"….do you want to break up with him?" asked Reigen, his breath hitching in his throat. He fucked up. He knew that he had fucked up. He had lost her…but he had never really had her. Even when he thought that he had her he didn't. This was why he hadn't had a girlfriend since university. This was just too much to deal with.

"I…I don't know. I don't know what I want. I just know that I'm an adult and I have to do what adults do and make this right…" said Mob starting to talk way too loud and way too fast again.

"What about me? Mob…Mob you know that I love you…" said Reigen. He matched her in tone, pitch, and pace. She really was just two timing…Mob was actually capable of two timing…this was too much…

"….I love you, too…I just…" said Mob

"I love you and…and I should have just…from the beginning…but you're still…Mob…do you love him?" asked Reigen. Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.

"….I don't want to hurt you." Said Mob. Nothing good ever came from answering that question.

"So you do." Said Reigen lowly.

"I love you, too." Said Mob. She loved them both. She did, she really did, and that was the worst part of all of it.

"….you love him. You actually love him…." said Reigen. No. No way. No goddamned way!

"I-I don't know-" said Mob. Then there was silence. She stared at her phone.

He hung up on her.

She clicked her phone off and just sat there. The steam was making her hair stick to her head. That was the only reason why her hair wasn't acting up. He…he hung up on her. He just hung up on her. He didn't even say goodbye, he just hung up and now he was probably happy to be rid of her and he probably didn't want anything to do with her and now she was all alone and-

She felt an aura against hers.

She wasn't alone.

Even though it felt like she was. Even though so much time had passed but…but this was the first time she had really felt him in…but she was feeling him. Serizawa. The person who….who loved her. Serizawa loved her. She didn't even know what she had expected from the phone call beyond hearing Master Reigen's voice. She still loved him but…

She had made a promise.

And she had a mess to clean up.

So she maybe ought to focus on doing that.

She didn't bother showering. She just changed. She didn't feel like showering. She didn't feel like doing anything. She just wanted to rest. Was this how Serizawa felt all the time? Was this why he stopped doing pretty much everything? This was how she made him feel. All alone and empty and cold on the inside.

It was a bad feeling. It wasn't sharp like heartbreak. It was duller, more like breaking a bone than breaking a heart. But then again nothing broke like a heart, it seemed. Her heart was broken. She was broken. She was broken on the inside and there was nobody to put her back together because she had broken the two people who cared about her the most in the world.

So maybe she should just go to bed.

The TV was paused when she left the bathroom. Serizawa was already laying down. He was facing the wall. He got the inside of the bed, she got the outside. They so rarely shared the bed, he didn't sleep much these days. The two of them didn't sleep together much these days, or at all, it depended on what you meant by sleeping together. He wasn't asleep, his aura felt awake. He was just facing the wall.

She laid down next to him.

"Hi." Said Mob. She was on her back, now, looking at the ceiling. There was a crack there, and a few more as well. She remembered when they made those cracks together.

"Hi." Said Serizawa. He didn't want to go to sleep, he just wanted to be very still for a while. This was a small apartment and her voice carried. She was talking to someone, probably HIM again. Reigen. Serizawa can't blame her. Reigen is just so much…better…than what he can be.

He can't even leave the house anymore.

"Do you want me to turn the TV off?" asked Mob

"No." said Serizawa

"Are you going to get back to playing?" asked Mob

"Maybe." Said Serizawa

"Are you going to take a break now?" asked Mob

"Yes. I guess. I don't know. Are you going to sleep?" asked Serizawa

"I think so. I'm tired and I have school tomorrow." Said Mob

"Just school?" asked Serizawa

"And work. I have work tomorrow too." Said Mob

"…with Reigen?" asked Serizawa

"No, not anymore. Why?" asked Mob

"Because I heard you talking to him and I assumed…." Said Serizawa

"You heard that?" asked Mob

"Yes." said Serizawa

"I'm not going to see him, he just asked me to call him. We had a fight…but I'm not going to see him." said Mob

"If you say so." Said Serizawa

"I do. I'm not going to see Master Reigen. He doesn't want anything to do with me anyway….probably." said Mob

"I don't believe…." Said Serizawa

"You should because I'm telling the truth. The only one who wants me to be their girlfriend is you and I don't even know why." Said Mob

"Because I love you." Said Serizawa

"But why do you love me? I'm terrible to you. I cheated on you and I made you live in your room forever." Said Mob

"I just…do. I just love you so much and…and I want to be with you…but it's hard for me. This is hard for me….just knowing that you still want to be with him is hard for me." Said Serizawa

"But I'm not with him, I'm with you." Said Mob

"But you want to be with him." said Serizawa

"But I also want to be with you." Said Mob

"Why?" asked Serizawa

"Because you're so nice to me. Because you care about me. Because you're…because you're someone who even though I messed up still loves me. I don't know why you love me but you love me. I love you too but I love him too but it doesn't even matter because he doesn't even like me anymore, let alone love me." Said Mob

"….I love you because you're...I love you for a lot of reasons that I just can't get into right now. I love you and I always will but it's just…it's hard for me." Said Serizawa

"It's hard for me, too. It's hard knowing that this is all my fault….but I can take care of you. I can be an adult and live like an adult and I can fix what I broke like an adult would." Said Mob

"…this isn't your fault. You hurt me but it's not your fault that I can't get back up again. it's not your fault that I'll never be able to rejoin society. This is just my poor coping mechanisms, that's all." Said Serizawa

"No, it is my fault. If I hadn't cheated on you then none of this would have happened. But I can take care of you just like your mom did. I have to, this is my fault." Said Mob

He was silent after that. He thought about what she said all night. Long after the TV had shut down from inactivity. Long after she fell asleep and he could hear the little mewing noises that she made as she drifted off. Long after his phone vibrated from where it was charging so many times that it fell down. The thought about it long into the night.

She wanted to take care of him just like his mom had.

His mom had wasted fifteen years of her life taking care of him when he locked himself away. She loved him, she always said that she loved him, but she had still wasted years and years of her life. She worked just to make sure that he had things to keep him occupied and happy. She still worked even though she was in her sixties because of him. What kind of a life was that? Working day and night for someone who could never get better?

And that was what Mob was prepare to do.

She hurt him. She hurt him in the worst way that a person could ever be hurt. Now she was going to spend the rest of her life with him atoning for what she had done. The rest of her life…with him. But that was not what he had pictured for them, their life together. He had pictured what all the other adults his age had. A family. A place to live. Stability. Being out in the world, facing it, with the person who he loved the most. That was what he wanted for their life together.

Not her working herself to the bone and beating herself up for the rest of their lives.

It hurt. The wound was raw and even rawer now because she had been talking to him…to Reigen. She had told Reigen that she loved him…and she told Serizawa to his face, or rather back, that she loved Reigen. But she also loved him. Could you…could you really love two people equally? Well not equally. Reigen wasn't like him. Reigen had probably gotten right back up after all of this and was living his life out there in the world while Serizawa was giving himself carpal tunnel syndrome and a vitamin D deficiency and probably driving his girlfriend away from him, too.

He needed to come off of this.

He still wanted that life with her. She wanted a life with him, she was prepared to spend it atoning after all. So he needed to come off of this and be the person what she wanted to spend her life with. Nobody wanted to spend a lifetime atoning. Nobody wanted to spend their life taking care of someone who was too weak to take care of himself. His mother hadn't. She loved him but of course she hadn't chosen to spend her entire life taking care of him. Mob wouldn't want to spend her life taking care of him either.

It happened.

It hurt.

It would hurt for the rest of his life.

But it was over now.

It was over and he needed to just come off of it. He knew this but it was easier said than done. He had been up most of the night just gathering up enough of himself to…he didn't even know what. He had so many plans to rejoin society, before. He had a job and he was going to go back to school, because she deserved someone with more than not even a full elementary school education, and he was going to make a life for the two of them. Of course that was then and this was now. It was hard enough just getting out of bed in the morning, let alone out of the house.

But he had to.

He had no idea what time it was when he got out of bed. It was long after she had gotten up and gotten dressed and left for her day. He had just laid there as she got ready, listening to her prepare for her day. The rustle of cloth as she put her uniform on. The scrape of metal against ceramic as she ate her cereal. The click of his lock as she left. If he strained he could even hear the ding of the elevator as it came and took her down to the first floor and out of the building. He focused on her aura and watched until even that was out of sight.

He had no idea how long ago that had been.

But it was long enough that he knew that he needed to get up and…and open the blinds. So that was what he did. He used his powers to open the blinds. It didn't have to take as long as it did and it didn't require nearly as much effort as he put into it but he opened the blinds and let the sunshine in.

He saw the light. It burned.

It took his eyes some time to adjust to it all. The apartment looked different in the light of day. He could see just how much accumulated junk there was on and around his table. He could see just how misshapen some of his models were. Well she had been the one to put them back together, not him, so that would explain it. He wondered if she looked misshapen too. He felt his hair. It was too long and standing up on it's own despite the grease. He had a layer of stubble, too, that was quickly becoming as close to a beard as he could grow. He could see the stains on his pajamas, too. Cup noddle broth, soy sauce, what might have been mayonnaise at some point…

He was a mess.

He tossed off his pajamas, finally feeling how gross they were. He tossed off everything, actually, because he hadn't changed in a long time. He stood there, naked, and hoping that nobody was trying out their telescopes right about now. He looked around self-consciously. Just him. She was…at work? Was this work time? Maybe…but she wasn't there and that was what mattered. What would she have done if she came home right then and there and found him like this?

Probably nothing.

They hadn't done anything in a very long time. How long he did not know, but long enough…

He missed it. He missed it even though the thought of intimacy with her makes him want to close the blinds and hide in the dark again. She had been….she had been with Reigen but she was with him now and he could not just keep on wallowing. He would not give into the urge to hide in the dark. No. If she came in right then and there and told him that she wanted to climb into bed with him then he would do whatever she wanted. Because he still loved her and he loved showing her how much he loved her….even though Reigen had…

But she was with him now.

And he needed to come off of this.

She may have strayed but he did not lose her. Now he had to keep her. Now he had to be the sort of man he was trying to be before, the sort of man that she would want to be with. The first step would be to stop outside and-

Put some clothes on first because he did not want to get arrested for public indecency. His criminal record already included high treason, destruction of private property, destruction of public property, more assaults that he could count, and illegally downloading games off the internet. He did not want a public indecency charge on top of all of that. Somehow he didn't think that defecting to the good guys at the last minute would keep him out of jail for that one….and how would he explain that to his mother? Wait…how long had it been?

He missed their check in phone call!

But first, clothes, because there was just something inherently wrong about talking to your mom on the phone when you were naked.

Reigen wondered if there was something inherently wrong about being heartbroken over a fifteen year old girl that you had known for years and years…

Of course there was. He had known from the beginning that there was. Mob was too young for him. He had been worried about what he would have done to her, how dating someone his age would have affected her. He was also worried for his own self, for his reputation, for the way strangers on the street would look at him as he walked by with his fifteen year old girlfriend. He worried about how her family would react, how his mother would react. He worried that seeing her romantically would destroy what they had together.

Well he had been right on that account, at least.

Because they had completely fallen apart, though not for the reasons he thought. No. They had fallen apart because at some point he ended up second to Serizawa. To her he was second to Serizawa….her boyfriend. He was still her boyfriend, even after Reigen called Mob's mother like a little tattle tale. Or a responsible adult, depending on one's perspective….who was he kidding he did it out of spite. Well that hadn't helped, if anything it had made things worse, because apparently Mob was living with Serizawa now…not that Serizawa was doing much living these days.

That part was Reigen's fault.

For all of his anger at Serizawa for taking Mob from him Serizawa was still the man who saved his life. Still his best friend. Still his only friend. He had hurt his only friend, pushed him back a million steps until he was locked in his room again, and he needed to apologize. Hopefully it went better than calling Mob. How could she have been so…so…so…well she was fifteen. That would explain everything. Why she had done all of this in the first place, why she was being so stubborn, why she felt the need to act like an adult.

Because she wasn't, so she tried to act like one.

When one was an adult one had the freedom to act like a child. Or a teenager. Reigen had been exercising that freedom and look where it had gotten him. Mob was…Mob was going through a lot of shit. Mob needed to get herself sorted out. It hurt. It hurt a lot but she needed to get herself sorted. He needed to get his own house in order, too, before he criticized her. He still loved her, he always would love her, but she…she was with Serizawa now…

And she had been for a while.

And he needed to apologize.

He needed to say sorry for his part in all of this. Serizawa was not like him, he was more…he was less resilient. Not that Reigen was much better. He may have been a lightweight but that was all the more reason to put the bottle down and get himself sorted because he could not carry on like this.

The only cure for heartbreak was time.

And since his business was in shambles he had all the time in the world. He would…he did miss Mob…but…but she loved Serizawa. She loved them both, she had said so, and when she did it felt like she was reaching inside of him to pull out his heart through the mole on his stomach…but upon further though she hadn't said that she didn't love him….

Maybe he was just so in love with her that he was stupid enough to entertain certain thoughts. But she was not a panda. What, did he get Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Serizawa got Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and they alternated Sundays? Mob was not a panda. She was a human being and the only thing worse than dating a fifteen year old girl was sharing a fifteen year old girl with your thirty one year old best friend…

But people did make it work.

But he must have been drunk or something to even entertain thoughts like that.

But it was possible to make it work and it was better than losing her.

But that was not what he texted Serizawa about. No, not at all about that. He sent one word, one simple word, because he had no idea what else he was supposed to say to the man. One word that encompassed everything that he felt, everything that he wanted to say.

Serizawa stared at his phone.

Reigen had texted him. He didn't know if he should have opened the message or not. He had no idea if he even wanted to hear from Reigen. What could Reigen have had to say? More mean things? Maybe. It wasn't like Reigen had any reason to be nice to him. He had exploded at Reigen, hurt him, and completely destroyed the office.

So that must have been what this was about.

He was dressed, now, and had been about to call his mom and tell her that he was fine. Not that he wanted to lie to her but he didn't want her to worry or to dislike Mob. She would dislike Mob if she knew that Mob had cheated on him. She would never forgive that. She still had trouble forgiving herself, she said, so inviting Suzuki into their house and letting Serizawa go off with him. But that had been his choice. That had been his choice, then, and being with Mob was his choice now. She would never forgive Mob for cheating on him, hell, he was having trouble forgiving her…so of course mom could not know.

Because he still had forever with Mob.

He would be with her for…for as long as she would have him. He was still hers and she was still his and he would ignore this text from Reigen and…and…and….

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

Her.

He'd go to her. He'd go see her because even though she's been living with him for an indeterminate amount of time he still feels like he hasn't seen her in so very long…and he does want to see her. He needs to be able to see her. He needs to be able to see her without thinking about what happened. He wants to be able to look at her without thinking about what happened. He wants to be able to hold her and kiss her and never let her go.

So he goes to her.

Minegishi did not like to be bothered.

Which was unlucky for him because that was exactly what happened. Serizawa's aura was almost as bright as his girlfriend's. His presence almost as annoying, too. What was Serizawa doing there? His girlfriend was not there. It was one in the afternoon, she was at school or wherever she went when she wasn't working. He didn't care. The important thing was that she was not there and Minegishi didn't have to deal with her constant, overbearing, attempts at friendship.

Though sometimes she'd bring him soda and snacks from her other job, so that was nice at least. He wouldn't be dying of hunger or dehydration anytime soon.

"Oh….I thought that she'd be here…it feels like her…" said Serizawa as he stepped into his girlfriend's place of work. It felt like her in there but now he could see that he was just feeling the plants. It felt like Minegishi in there, too, but that was not only because of the plants but also because Minegishi was standing there looking at him like he looked at everyone.

Annoyed and bored.

Yup. Minegishi.

"It's one o'clock in the afternoon. I'm assuming you're talking about our fearless leader. She's probably at school or something." Said Minegishi closing his book loudly. He looked Serizawa up and down. Yup, that was more like what he was used too. All he needed were the pajamas and crocs.

"Oh! I didn't know what time it was." Said Serizawa. He looked away from Minegishi. He forgot how he could stare.

"Have you ever considered checking your phone?" asked Minegishi

"I left it at home." Said Serizawa

"Well then I'd suggest you walk a block down the street and buy a watch. Well it was nice seeing you again, Serizawa, take care of yourself and all of that." Said Minegishi opening his book again. He hoped to God that Serizawa was not here for any kind of advice. No. He did not want to know any more about this relationship than he already did.

"Hey…Minegishi? How is she…doing? I mean you work with her all day and I'm guessing that you're friends with her. Just friends, I mean, I'm not accusing you of-" asked Serizawa. Minegishi worked with Mob. They were probably friends, well as good of friends as Minegishi could make with someone. A terrible thought enters Serizawa's mind. Mob wouldn't…would she? Was this what life was going to be, now? He was going to be paranoid of every guy in her life?

"She comes into work, she works, she makes a little less than me, and she goes home. Sometimes she talks about her school. Sometimes she talks about her friends. Sometimes she goes on and on and on about Evangelion, overrated if you ask me, and sometimes she talks about you. We just talk. Well she talks and I listen because I am not pissing off the most powerful being on Earth. I'm also not sleeping with the most powerful being on Earth. She's fifteen, I don't go that young. Also I doubt she would want to. Does that answer your question?" said Minegishi. Serizawa needed a moment to process.

"I never accused you of-!" said Serizawa. That was a crazy thing to accuse anyone of….well it had happened once…and Reigen had been his best friend…but he could not go through life accusing everyone he knew of sleeping with his girlfriend…even though he had no idea why they wouldn't want to. Well aside from the age thing.

He still didn't get why that bothered people.

She wasn't a child or anything and it wasn't illegal.

"Saying that you aren't accusing me of anything is pretty much the same as accusing me. I have no interest in your fifteen year old girlfriend. I'm grateful that she saved my life but I have no interest in her. None. We're barely even friends. Well she thinks that we're friends…God only knows why." Said Minegishi

"Because you're a nice person, sometimes, even though you pretend that you aren't." said Serizawa. Minegishi was a good friend, mostly because he acted like he wasn't. There was less of an expectation of niceness from him, of that warm feeling you got when you were near a good friend.

"….yeah, I can see why she's into you." Said Minegishi wondering what he had done to deserve this. Serizawa was…nice…but he could be nice in the clingy, earnest, sort of way that his girlfriend was…and they both wanted to be friends.

A lifetime of birthday parties, baby showers, Christmases, and the like flashed before Minegishi's eyes.

At least Suzuki never tried to be friends with any of his subordinates. Maybe that was what the girl was planning, collecting espers to be her friends.

Better than taking over the world, though, so there was that. Much less work, and no more time spent in power nullification rooms.

"She talks about me?" asked Serizawa. That was…good? Good. He was going with good. She talked about him, maybe in the way that he used to talk about her. How amazing she was, how much he loved her, how wonderful the life that they were going to have together was. He missed talking about that, even though that got him kicked out of the group chat a couple times because he did tend to go on and on about her.

He missed going on and on about her.

"Yes. Why don't you just go and ask her yourself? You know where she goes to school and I'm assuming that she's still living with you. You can't wait all day for her unless you plan on buying something." Said Minegishi

"I can't go to her school! She's busy…and also I don't think that they'd let me in to just go and talk to her…because of the age thing…"said Serizawa

"Well at least you have some self-awareness…" muttered Minegishi under his breath. Why did everyone who wanted to be his friend have to be so goddamned annoying? Customers were fine, they just came in and out. First Hatori wants to text him about god only knew what, apparently living a life underground, possibly literally, was lonely. Then Shimazaki wants to bother him about dredging up the past, which they barely even had, and now Serizawa wanted to come out of his room for the first time in forever just to talk about his fifteen year old girlfriend! That same fifteen year old girlfriend who was going to walk through that door in a few hours and just STARE at him until he asked her what was up and then she would TALK but in that monotone she did so it was extra annoying and-

And now he was losing control of his powers.

Great.

"Wow…those are really cool plants!" said Serizawa. Minegishi was doing that thing he did when he was truly annoyed, he was biting his tongue a little and clicking his nails together. He was losing control a little bit, too, which was actually reassuring…somewhat because if even someone like him could lose control of his powers then maybe…

"Thank you. Now, do you want to buy your girlfriend some flowers or do you want to get out?" asked Minegishi

"Do you think that would be a good idea? I mean…she grew a lot of these plants to begin with…" said Serizawa

"Then candy or something. Something that will make her shut up about how worried she is about you and how sorry she is for cheating on you and how she feels like you don't love her. And don't you start up with that, either. Instead of talking to me you two should just talk to each other. Or maybe don't date teenager girls. That would work, too." said Minegishi

"….she thinks that I don't love her?" asked Serizawa. Minegishi shook his head.

"Ask her why she feels like that. Her. Not me. She and I are barely friends…despite what she thinks….so just talk to your girlfriend. Talk to her so I can stop hearing about how worried she is about you. And stop with the hikikomori thing, too, because you're making her worried and when she worries she talks to me and I work with plants because they DON'T bother me with their problems." Said Minegishi. He saw Serizawa's aura. The next thing he knew he was getting hugged.

Tightly.

The power nullification room and the cruel government lab were looking better and better with each passing second.

"Thank you." Said Serizawa. She cared. She did care. She still cared. She still loved him and…and she was not with him out of obligation…but because she still cared.

"You're welcome….now get the fuck off of me." Said Minegishi. How he wished that he were psychokinetic. Or could teleport. Anything to get away from Serizawa. Apparently he was back to not neglecting basic hygiene again, not just grooming.

President Kageyama picked herself a real winner there.

"Oh. Sorry. I forgot that you didn't like to be touched." Said Serizawa. Minegishi pulled his shirt up over his nose.

"It's not just that. When was the last time you took a bath?" asked Minegishi trying his hardest to breathe through his mouth.

"Um…I don't remember….but I brushed my teeth-" said Serizawa

"Well that's just wonderful, now how about you go home and take a nice, long, bath." Said Minegishi

"….is it really that bad?" asked Serizawa

"Oh no, not at all. You smell just fine, like a field of roses." Said Minegishi

"…I know you're kidding." Said Serizawa. Right. He hadn't showered…and he knew that he needed one. Right. He had to go home and shower…but leave the blinds opened. That way he wouldn't get stuck. He just needed to leave the blinds opened and wait for her to come home and then he wouldn't be gross anymore…and then she'd see that he had mostly forgiven her and that he was doing better and then they could go back to something close to normal.

Because he did miss her.

"You're right. Now stand next to those plants." Said Minegishi. Serizawa shuffled slightly to the left.

"Really. You're such a good friend to tell me-" said Serizawa

"That you stink? Yeah, not a lot of people would tell you that you need to scrub off a couple layers of skin. Preferably in water hot enough to boil a person." Said Minegishi

"No, I mean to tell me that my girlfriend-" said Serizawa

"Would prefer it if you were waiting for her at home smelling like a human being? Yes, I am a good person for telling you that, aren't I?" said Minegishi

"Well, yes, but also for telling me how much she talked about me and cared about me. I honestly thought that she was only with me because-" said Serizawa

"Well unless you go home and take a bath you won't have to worry about her talking about you or caring about you anymore." Said Minegishi waving at him to get going and let him have a few hours of peace before the other half of that relationship came in and unloaded her feelings onto him.

He really needed less friends.

Serizawa could take a hint. He went home and scrubbed off the collective filth that clung to him. Showers were a thing. Deodorant was a thing. He was loathe to change clothes so often in one day but laundry was a thing, too. He changed into actual clothes and waited for her to come home.

The waiting got boring, after a while, so he did call his mom. He told her nothing, of course, about what happened. He was loathe to lie to his mother but it was for a good reason. Mob still loved him, Mob had chosen him, and if he was truly going to work past her infidelity and build a life with her then mom needed to like her. He told his mother that he had just been busy and that he was doing fine and going forward with all the plans that he made to rejoin society.

Well that last part was not a lie.

He really was going to be a better man for her. If he were a better man then she wouldn't have cause to cheat on him again. Not that he didn't forgive her, because he did, but also because he didn't ever want to have to feel like that again. He only had so many friends, not even a best friend anymore, and he didn't want to lose any of them either. It wasn't like anyone could ever say no to her. She was perfect in every way, except for the cheating, so of course Reigen couldn't have said no to her. Not that Serizawa wanted to ever think about what happened ever again.

Which was why he didn't once check his texts.

Mob had been glued to her phone all day. Nothing from Master Reigen. A few from mom and dad asking her to come home, one from Sho saying that he was super mad at her for what she did to Ritsu, one from Ritsu telling her that he was sorry he reacted the way he did and that she should come home, and one from Minegishi of all people telling her to go home to Serizawa instead of coming in to work.

She didn't reply to any of her texts. She did not want to go home. To either of her homes. She did not want to go home and get yelled at by mom and called a child. She did not want to fight with Ritsu ever again. She also didn't want to fight with Sho, and he was always with Ritsu, so going home was clearly out of the question. She also didn't want to go home to Serizawa.

Just yet.

Because it was just so small and dark and he would be so quiet and she'd have nothing to do but watch him play videogames until she went to sleep. Then she'd get up and do it all again.

She would much rather go to work. That was what adults did, anyway, they went to work. She was an adult now. She really was. Not that she knew who she was arguing with. What did it matter how other people saw her, she saw herself as an adult. Her life was her own. She was an adult plain and simple and adults went to work when they were scheduled to work so they could earn grocery money and money for other stuff.

So she went to work.

"You're here?" asked Minegishi as she came in, which was an odd question to ask, in Mob's opinion, because of course she was so clearly there.

"Yes, I have work today. Why did you tell me not to come in? Does the boss not need me?" asked Mob

"No, if anything he's been bothering me to find more of us…I'm the one who told you not to come in." said Minegishi

"Oh. Why?" asked Mob. Did she do something wrong? Ok, so maybe she wasn't the best at trimming or watering or…well a lot of things…but she didn't think that she had been doing such a terrible job.

"Because your other half came in here at one in the afternoon looking for you. Apparently he had a moment of clarity or whatever and he misses you…or something. I don't know. All I know is he's waiting for you at home and he stinks like he hasn't bathed in weeks." Said Minegishi

"It hasn't been that long, and you get used to it. Eventually you barely even notice-" said Mob

"Well I didn't want him hanging around here long enough for me to get nose blind to it, ok? So go home, I'll cover for you, and make up already because I cannot hear about your relationship problems from one more second." Said Minegishi. Mob pushed her aura out towards his.

"Are you alright? You seem extra pointy today. I don't know. I'm not good at reading people but your aura is being kind of-" said Mob

"I'm fine. Aside from the fact that I have to take a piss I'm fine. Mind the shop for ten more seconds and then go home and make up with Serizawa." said Minegishi. Mob nodded.

Make up with Serizawa?

He had left the house?

For the first time in a while she smiles. He's getting better. He forgave her for cheating on him. At least one person in the world loved her. Even though Master Reigen wanted nothing more to do with her she at least had Serizawa and she could be with him just like old times and everything would be ok.

"Mother fucker!" well things would be ok for her, anyway. She was happy that there weren't any customers, though she hoped that the plants weren't offended or anything. They did have feelings, she could tell, though Minegishi could tell much better than she could. She saw his aura flare. It was pointy, like had been today. Though he was always pointy, in his feelings, and the way he acted. He was nice though, under all of that, like a raw sea urchin.

"Are you ok?" asked Mob as the bathroom door slammed opened. Minegishi ran his hands through his hair and muttered more words that Mob knew were not appropriate for the workplace.

"Yes, I'm fine. Perfectly fine." Said Minegishi. Fuck. How? It was only…he did some mental math…not that it had ever been anywhere near regular…

Goddamn it all.

"Ok. You just seem like something's bothering you. Also you're cursing a lot." Said Mob. Minegishi shook his head.

"You're very observant, aren't you?" asked Minegishi

"Thank you." Said Mob

"You and Serizawa are two of a kind…" muttered Minegishi as he went over to his bag and practically upended it. Of course he'd be unprepared. Of fucking course.

"What are you looking for?" asked Mob hovering closely. He said that he was fine but he did not look at all fine. His aura looked…worried. Scared. Mad. His face, too, which was odd because he didn't have a lot of expression, like she did.

"You. Do you have a napkin?" asked Minegishi. Mob blinked.

"Like a paper one or-" said Mob

"A sanitary napkin. Or a tampon. Or something." Said Minegishi

"Um…but you're a boy…?" asked Mob. Minegishi stared at her. Well then. He assumed that it was common knowledge that he had not always been a 'he'….but Serizawa was clueless and he and his girlfriend were two of a kind.

"I was not born a boy. Now do you have a napkin or not?" asked Minegishi. Mob blinked. Well she had not known that….and now she was filled with a million and one questions. But first she called her school nag over to her with her powers. She had help Minegishi, even if they weren't friends. It was just what you were supposed to do.

"Um…maybe." Said Mob as she dug. It had been a while, a worryingly long while. She had been trying not to worry. She had been trying not to think about the fact that this hadn't happened to her in a while.

"Maybe? If you're too young-" said Minegishi

"I am not young! It's just….been a very long time since…." Said Mob. Minegishi stared at her.

"How long is a while?" asked Minegishi. She could not be…because that would be such a shit show….Serizawa with a kid? This kid with a kid? No. No way. Not happening. No.

"Um….a couple months I think?" asked Mob as she dug in the secret inner pockets of her bag. Oh! There! She held it out to Minegishi. It took him a while to take it from her.

"….I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this information." Said Minegishi staring at her. Well then. This was happening. The most powerful being on Earth was reproducing. Who knew what she'd end up making. From what he could gather Suzuki's son only had one esper parent…and that kid was disturbingly powerful for someone his age….and this girl had beat Suzuki….and Serizawa himself was on another level…

Oh God.

"Oh. The bottom is sticky so all you have to do is-" said Mob

"No…I mean…so you're pregnant. Congratulations, I guess. Who's the father?" asked Minegishi partially because that was his way and partially because he needed to know if he needed to run and hide anytime soon.

Because who knew what those two would end up making.

"What?! I-I-I'm not! I would have-have-have noticed!" said Mob. Something broke. Plants grew so high that they blocked the windows. The building shook. The block shook.

"Well that would be the whole several missed periods thing…." Said Minegishi. Ok, maybe that hadn't been the thing to say. Maybe.

"But it skips sometimes….I don't know….I can't be…." Said Mob. A reassuring hand on her back.

"Um….take a test, I guess? I have no idea. You have options? I don't know…I have no idea what I'm supposed to do in this situation." Said Minegishi. Now he was being hugged. He was being hugged and he could feel her aura and it did not feel good but she had him in a death grip and he had to reassure her because she had decided that they were friends…

Maybe Hatori knew a good hiding place. Going underground was starting to look better and better these days.

"A test?" asked Mob. Right. Those were a thing. But she could not be…she just had to stop thinking about this. She just had to calm down and think about something else….like how Master Reigen didn't like her anymore….no something better….like how Serizawa liked her again.

Anything but this.

"Yeah. For the love of….what in the hell are they teaching in these schools…just go to the pharmacy and take a test. Just piss on the stick and get it over with. If you're not pregnant then congratulations and if you are then…congratulations? Your body your choice? City hall gives you a cute book and a keychain when you register the…kid…and you like cute things." Said Minegishi. Well then…this was happening. This was a thing.

"….alright…" said Mob because, well, what else could she do? She was an adult, now, and she had to do what she had to do.

Even if she really, really, really didn't want to.

But she had to. She had to be an adult and…and this was what adults did. She'd get home and figure out…everything. She'd go home to the cramped darkness and just…deal with this. She'd deal with this like she dealt with everything else. That was all. She'd just go home and…and deal with this.

There was dinner waiting for her when she got home.

She knew because the hallway smelled like cooking. Well the hallways sometimes smelled like cooking but that usually meant that they neighbors were cooking. So she didn't know, as she walked down the hallway with the plastic bag rustling between shaking hands, that there was dinner waiting for her. Not until she opened the door.

Sunlight.

Air.

The TV was off.

Space.

And Serizawa was in the kitchen making dinner.

He was better. Not mad at her anymore. He really had left the house…and he looked a lot better, too. His hair was combed and he had shaved. He had changed clothes, too, and was wearing actual day clothes. It was like before, almost just like before…

It was nice.

And a lot.

But in a good way.

"You're home! I mean, I knew that you were coming home, I just didn't know when. Um…I wanted to see you today but you were at school….but I'm happy to see you now! And I'm sorry for how I was….before." said Serizawa. Effort. This had been a lot of effort. He needed to get back in that dark and under the covers and-and-and

But he couldn't.

Because he had to be better for her.

"You….you made me dinner…" said Mob. This was so…this was the nicest thing that anyone had ever done for her, it felt like, even though she knew objectively that people had done nicer stuff for her…but this was just so nice and he was so nice and he loved her so much and-and-and-

"I'm making it. It's just curry but you always bring home dinner so I-" said Serizawa. She was worth the effort. Even if she had cheated on him she was worth the effort. She was so perfect and worth it and-

"I think I might be pregnant!" said Mob suddenly. The world stopped, for both of them. Everything that wasn't fastened down began to float…

Then there was a loud crash.

And a mess.

Such a mess.


	22. Five Long Minutes

Who knew that five minutes could take so very long?

Mob hadn't. Five minutes used to be assort amount of time. Five minutes was how long it took to microwave two big ramen cups. In the time it took for that piece of plastic to decide if there was a person growing inside of her she could have made two of the big ramen cups…or something…because she was hungry. Serizawa had made them dinner but it ended up splattered everywhere…when she told him…

And he took 'might be' and 'oh my God we're having a baby!' which was…Mob didn't even know how she felt about that.

"You know, um…." Said Serizawa. He felt like he had to say something. It was too quiet. The only sound was the groaning of the pipes as one of the neighbors took a shower. He and Mob were in the bathroom. She was sitting on the closed toilet lid with her knees drawn up to her chest and he was sitting on the laundry hamper. He could have reached over and touched her if he wanted to…but he wasn't sure if she wanted him to do so.

She was not taking this well.

Neither had he, when she told him.

But he had to keep it together, for her sake. This was…scary. Exciting. Wonderful. Terrible. Every feeling that there ever was.

He was going to be someone's father!

Maybe.

"Yes?" asked Mob, her voice muffled by her knees. She was so scared. Worried. Unhappy. This was…she could not have a baby! She had no idea how she was supposed to take care of a baby. How often did you have to feed them? Change them? Wash them? What did they eat? Well besides milk, obviously. Formula. Breastmilk. Was she going to have to breastfeed the baby? She had no idea how breastfeeding worked! Also she had school and work….how was she supposed to go to school and work and take care of a baby? Didn't they cry all night? When was she supposed to sleep?

This was too much.

"I…support you…no matter what you choose to do I'll support you." Said Serizawa. That was what she needed, support, because she was starting to freak out. He reached out and put a hand on her back. He felt her aura pushing against him. She shook her head back and forth.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" asked Mob over and over again. She didn't have to have the baby if she were pregnant…but that was an expensive operation…and there were laws as to how late one could have it…and Mob couldn't even remember her last period…but that didn't mean that she was pregnant. She one time went almost four months between periods…but she hadn't been having sex with anyone then.

"Whatever you want. It's your choice…" said Serizawa. It was a terrible thing to come into this world unwanted. Mom wanted him, dad hadn't. That was why dad left him and mom all alone…that and Serizawa's powers…but he would not leave Mob and their child…children…all alone. No. He would be there for her…no matter what she chose…because it was her choice and he didn't get to force her to do anything…and he wasn't even sure what he wanted her to do…because he had no idea how to raise a child or be a father. He had never had a father and the only father that he knew had been Suzuki…and he treated Sho so very terribly…so at least he knew what not to do…

How could five minutes take this long?

"That's not an answer…." Moaned Mob. She felt a hand moving up and down her back. A shadow blanketed her.

"I don't know what to say, then. I'm…having mixed feeling right now. I mean I did want a life with you…and I still do even after everything that…happened…but I'm also a little…apprehensive…because I have no idea how to raise a child…but I can learn." Said Serizawa

"How can we take care of a baby? We don't know how-" said Mob

"We can learn." Said Serizawa

"I'm still in middle school-" said Mob

"And you're very good at it, I'm sure that you'll get good grades and go to a good university even if you have a baby. I can watch the baby while you're at school and stuff." Said Serizawa

"I have to go to work-" said Mob

"No you don't, I can…well I have some money saved up and I could find a new job." Said Serizawa

"We don't have enough room for a baby here." Said Mob

"We could always move, or even move in with my mother. She has a guest room that we can turn into a nursery and we can stay in my old room…." Said Serizawa. Not that he ever wanted to set foot in that prison cell ever again. But he would. He would for his family. His family…people that he was responsible for…

How could five minutes possibly take this long?

"I don't want to move!" said Mob. A bottle of shampoo exploded in the shower. Great. She might have been pregnant and now she had a mess to clean up. Wonderful.

"Ok, ok, ok. We can…stay here in Seasoning City if you want. We could…do your parents have a spare room? Or I guess that babies don't really need their own rooms, being so very small and all…" said Serizawa

"My parents!?" said Mob as the conditioner exploded, too. Well now she had even more of a mess to clean up, she might have been pregnant, and she had to go to the store again. Oh, and the whole room smelled kind of like pee because she had to pee on the stupid stick to see if she was pregnant and now it was sitting there on the counter just waiting to tell her that she had messed up worse than she ever had in her life. Like her mom and dad would tell her. Then they'd punish her…or maybe not. Maybe they would finally see her as the adult that she knew she was.

Being an adult was hard.

"I know that they're upset with you about…well…me…but I'm sure that they'll come around once they realize that you're…I mean we don't even know if you're pregnant yet but if you are I'm sure that they would love to be a part of their grandchild's life." Said Serizawa. His mother would be happy. She always wanted him to lead a normal life and this was what adults did. They met women, got married, and had children. Married….they'd have to get married if she were pregnant…right? Or maybe not because not everyone got married these days….

Whatever she wanted.

"My mom is going to kill me….and so is my dad…and then Ritsu is going to kill you…and then maybe even me if he's still mad…" said Mob. She felt a hand running through her hair and looked up.

"I'm sure that they won't. I'm sure that they'll be…accepting…maybe….once they realize how much we…love each other. My mother was apprehensive at first about you but now she knows how much I love you and she wants to meet you and stuff. I'm sure that once your parents realize how happy you are…I mean….you are happy…right? I mean…I love you and I want to make you happy." Said Serizawa. How happy was she? She had strayed….once…and once was more than enough…but he forgave her. He had to. He had to forgive her for the sake of their relationship…and their child….her child.

Possibly not his child.

The thought stabs him in the guts and twists. That might not be his…but she had only been with Reigen once…and that hadn't been that long ago. He had no idea when her last period was, as far as he knew, not that this was the sort of thing he asked her about, she had never had once since they had started this relationship. He knew the basics of how this all worked, Google had been very helpful in that regard, and if she hadn't had a period since they started this then if she were pregnant that would be his child. If she had and just hadn't felt the need to announce it to him…though considering how often they had sex he would have probably noticed….then it was a tossup between him and Reigen…

He would love this child just as much as he loved it's mother.

Because this was what he wanted. He totally wanted this. He wanted to be her everything. He wanted a family and a life and a happily ever after with her. He wanted all the things that someone his age wanted from life with her. He did. Even if she did cheat on him with his best friend in the entire world…and even if she was in love with his best friend in the entire world…and even if she hadn't even hesitated…probably.

The wound was still raw.

So he decided to stop picking at it.

He decided, instead, to think of the life he was going to have with her. The two, no, three of them. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven-

Too many babies. She was probably only going to have one unless it was twins. Triplets were very rare, Google had said, and anything more than that was almost unheard of without the aid of modern medicine. One baby was enough. He still had no idea how he was going to take care of it. He would need to go to school, one could not raise a family without even a complete elementary school education, and he would need to get a job…and also she was right, they would need to move to a bigger place. Babies were so very small but then again so was this apartment….

He did not want to move back in to his old room at his mother's house.

"Of course I still love you. That's why I…why I'm staying with you…I love you…Katsuya." Said Mob. She meant it, she really did. He was…he was the person that she loved. She had to love him, anyway, because she might have been about to have his baby…or Master Reigen's…she pressed a hand to her stomach. She wasn't sure how pressing a hand to her stomach would help her tell whose baby it was but that was what she felt like doing so she did it.

"I love you too…Shigeko." Said Serizawa. She almost never called him by his given name…but if they were going to be a family then he would have to get used to being called Katsuya again. He would have to get used to being called a lot of things. Dad. Father. A little human was going to be calling him….a little human that he was responsible for making…

That he had no idea how to take care of.

Why did he feel like this? He had wanted this with her for so…well not for so long but so badly. He had fallen asleep with his hand on her stomach so many times just imagining the life that they would have together. Now that life might have been happening and he…he was happy and not happy…but he had to keep it together. He had to make sure that she thought that he had this all together…because she was scared.

So he held her.

He held her as best as he could. She held him back. They held each other and slowly made their way to the bathroom floor together. It was just easier that way. Easier to be together. Easier to be equals. Easier to be held and to be holding someone else.

"I don't know what to do….I really don't. I know that you want this but…but I'm only fifteen…I can't be someone's mother…I just don't know what we're going to do…I love you and I know that you love me and I know that you want to have a life with me but…but I don't know what to do….how to make that life…I don't know anything about babies! And I can't ask my mom or she'll be mad at me and I can't ask your mom because she lives really far away and I don't know her and I don't want to move in with someone I don't know and have to live in a new place and go to a new school and make new friends and-and-and I'm not even sure how I would go to school if I have a baby…and I don't even know how to take care of a baby at all!" said Mob. Serizawa pulled her close. He had no clue, either, but he needed to keep it together for her. Hiding under the covers and living in the darkness seemed more and more appealing as the seconds ticked by…but he could not do that again.

He needed to be better than that. For her. For her and…and their child…

Had it been five minutes yet?

"We can learn. We can learn together and figure it out together. You and I can do this together. We have to and we can…Shigeko. I love you and…and we'll figure it all out. Babies take nine months until they're born, that's plenty of time to figure something out." Said Serizawa

"Why are you being like this? So calm…" asked Mob

"Because I have to be. I have to be strong for you….the truth is I'm a little freaked out, too. I mean I have wanted this with you for so long but…but the reality of it has a lot more…it's less idyllic than what I had been picturing in my mind." Said Serizawa

"What do you…think about…when you think about us…like this?" asked Mob

"I think about you and me being so happy. We have a home and a family together. I'm…I'm in society and I'm where I should be in society…and we are just so happy." Said Serizawa

"Do you think…do you think that we can be happy? Like in what you want? Even though I…I hurt you?" asked Mob

"I…I want us to be. It hurts. You cheated on me and it hurts. It hurts less than when I first found out but it does still hurt. I still love you but this pain…I have no idea when or even if this pain will go away…but I'm not going to let it get the best of me again. I'm not going to lock myself away from the world again." said Serizawa

"I would understand…if you did. If you wanted to…and I would take care of you…because it's all my fault..." Said Mob

"But I won't. I won't hide away from the world again. You don't have to take care of me. I don't want you to be my…caretaker. I don't want you to waste your life taking care of me….like my mother did. I want us to have a life together. It hurts….it's going to hurt for a long time…but I still love you and I still want…this…with you." Said Serizawa as he put a hand on her stomach. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest. He wanted this and if he wanted this then she would go through with it…to make him happy…and not just because she did not have a lot of money and could not ask her parents for money to…because they were mad enough at her as it was. She had…she was an adult.

This was what adults did.

"Do you still want us to be married and stuff? And have a house and a family and a bunch of kids?" asked Mob. She was going to be a proper adult. She was going to be like mom. She was going to have a house and a family and children and those children were going to be…like she was…but she wasn't going to let them be afraid of themselves like she and Serizawa were. She was going to do a good job.

Because she was an adult now.

And this was what adults did.

"Of course I do. I want you to be with me for the rest of my life. I didn't…when I met you I had no idea that this was where we would end up…actually I thought that you were going to die…and I am so glad that you didn't! I am so happy that you're alive…so very happy…..and I couldn't be happier. I didn't know that you would be the girl, woman, that I would want to spend the rest of my life with but now…even if this whole thing is so big and so terrifying I still love you…and I want….I want to be with you forever." Said Serizawa

"…..I don't think that we can get married, though, not without my parents' permission anyway…and I don't think that they'll say yes. My mom is already really mad at me about everything that happened and my dad…dad just kind of ignores things that he doesn't like until they go away. One time me and Ritsu brought a bunch of frogs into the house and left them in the tub, we were really little back then, and then dad opened the bathroom door and all the frogs hopped out and all he did was say 'That's certainly odd' and then we watched TV until mom came home…then she yelled at us…I don't think that I'll yell at the…baby. Even when it's a kid and even when it does dumb stuff like bring frogs into the house I won't ever yell at it." Said Mob. Mom yelled at her a lot. Ritsu, too, when they were little but not anymore. She liked Ritsu better and it made sense. Ritsu was good at everything and he was the only boy, too. Maybe it would have been different if they were both boys…or maybe not because Ritsu was the best person in the whole world…it seemed like that sometimes. He was good at everything and super smart and never said or did the wrong thing. He would never cheat on the person he loved, either. She hoped that Ritsu was ok. She deserved what she got…she told Ritsu's biggest secret after all. She told mom and dad Ritsu's deepest secret and…and it was because she had thought that he had told on her…her biggest secret…but Ritsu hadn't and she had just told on him…

She hoped that her kids didn't have these kinds of problems.

A girl and a boy, that was what she wanted. A boy named Shigeo and a girl named…Katsuko. That would be good. If she got one of each. If she had twins. She'd have a boy and a girl and they would be best friends and she would love them both the same even if one had powers and one didn't, or one had powers that they couldn't control and one didn't, or both of them had uncontrollable powers, or neither of them had any powers at all. She would love her kids so much…and they would all be so happy…just a big, happy family…

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"That's good. I won't yell at it, either. I mean my mother has never yelled at me before but I don't think that it's…good for the baby…I guess." Said Serizawa. He knew nothing about parenting. Mom just kind of let him do whatever he wanted. She had been afraid of him since he was little. He would not be afraid of his son…or daughter…baby esper. He would not be afraid of his baby esper, and it would be an esper. He would never be afraid no matter how badly it exploded or how many walls he got thrown into. He would teach his kids that they didn't have to be afraid of themselves, that they were more than vessels for some terrible power that they were cursed with. They were people the same as everyone else and they didn't have to hide or lock themselves away or anything like that.

But he hoped that they didn't have powers.

He hoped that they didn't have powers that they couldn't control. He hoped that they didn't have to be constantly worried about losing control and hurting people. He hoped that they led good lives, full lives, lives full of families and friends. Lives where they didn't spend years locked away in the dark playing videogames and watching TV and reading manga…lives where they experienced everything that they could.

He hoped that his kids were happy.

"I hope…I hope that we have one of each. A boy and a girl. I want to call the boy Shigeo, after me, and the girl Katsuko, after you. If we have two boys I want to call them Shigeo and Katsuto. If we have two girls I want to call them Ritsuko and Katsuko. I want them to be happy and I will love them all just the same. Even if one has powers and the other doesn't or one has powers that are bigger than the other's or even if neither of them has any kid of powers. I don't want my, our, kids to be afraid of themselves. Also I won't ever yell and I'll make sure that they eat healthy and if they want a cat I'll get them a cat. If my, our, daughter wants to do boy things or like boy shows then she can and if my, our, son wants to do girl things or watch girl shows then he can. I don't care if they like boys or girls or both or neither. I don't care if they get good grades or bad grades. I just want them to be happy. That's what I want." Said Mob. She was just a little out of breath towards the end. She needed to say all of that. It was important that all of that got said. She didn't know what made it so important, if she was pregnant then she would have nine months to say it, but it was important so she said it right then and there.

"I….I like the names you picked out but…my mother's name is Yuzu and I would like to name our child after her, if we have a girl. I also…I like what you said…and I'm glad that you aren't…upset about all of this." said Serizawa

"I am…but I want to make the best of this, just like you are. You want to be with me for the rest of my life…nobody has ever wanted that from me before…and you're treating me like an adult…like a proper adult….and I like it….that you're treating me like an adult…" said Mob

"You are and adult." Said Serizawa. She was not a child, she had made that ABUNDANTLY clear over these few weeks. He didn't think that he was treating her in any special way at all. He was just talking to her and holding her and helping her through her apprehension. That was how you were supposed to treat your girlfriend, wasn't it?

"Thanks…um…thank you. I just…I'm trying really hard right now to make the best of this and it's a little better. I can think about how good it can be, how happy we can be, like you think about but…but there's still so much that we have no idea about…that I have no idea about." Said Mob

"Me too but…but we can learn. We can both learn together and we can figure out what we're going to do…it takes nine months for a baby to be born, that's plenty of time to get this all figured out." Said Serizawa

"You're right…we do have time. We have so much time…time to get it all figured out…" said Mob

"And we will. Even if it doesn't go the way we're imagining it…even if it's not anything like we planned…we'll still figure it out together. You can do this and so can I. I mean, we have to…and we will." said Serizawa. He felt it again, that feeling that she gave him. The feeling that led him to defy the President. The feeling that led him to rejoin society. The feeling that made him feel ten feet tall and completely invincible.

"We will. I saved the whole world…I can do this. We can do this. We can do this together and everything…everything is going to be just fine. We'll be happy. Shigeo and…Yuzu….or Yuzuko will be happy to have us as parents." Said Mob

"Yuzuko? Do you just want all the girls names to end in 'ko' because yours does?" laughed Serizawa. His first genuine laugh in a while. Mob smiled, too. Her first genuine smile in a while.

"Yes. I mean…my name was supposed to be Shigeo but then I was a girl so they called me Shigeko. Then Ritsu came along and he was a happy accident, not planned at all mom and dad said, and they couldn't call him Shigeo because that was too close to Shigeko so they called him Ritsu." Said Mob

"A happy accident…I like that." Said Serizawa as he rested his hand flat against her stomach. It didn't feel like anything. Just cloth, mostly. There was some give to it but not a lot, but that was normal for her. She wasn't skinny but she wasn't fat either. Somewhere in between. Soft. That was a good word for her. Soft. Her stomach, her hips, her breasts…just so wonderfully soft. He hadn't felt just how soft she was in so long…and he wanted to feel it again. He wanted to feel her again. The thought of her with Reigen…and she had been with Reigen like that and he knew just how soft she was…just how it felt to hold onto her hips as she ground down onto you…just how it felt to have her wrapped around….Reigen knew and it hurt but…but he also knew and he still…he still loved her and he still wanted to make love to her…

Because he loved her.

But now was not the time. Well…it wasn't like she was going to get any more pregnant…but that was how they got into that predicament in the first place. They should have been safer. She took medicine to keep her from getting pregnant but it wasn't one hundred percent effective and she didn't take it at one hundred percent the same time every single day anyway. That was something else that they were going to have to worry about, that is if she wasn't pregnant….

How long could five minutes be?

"That's not a name!" laughed Mob

"Hapiko Acidenitko." Said Serizawa. Mob laughed even harder. It wasn't that funny but she still felt like laughing. She just…she just wanted to laugh. She wanted to laugh again and she wanted to hear him laugh again. She wanted things to be ok between herself and Serizawa again. That was all that she wanted.

"That's just…nonsense! It doesn't….how would that even look in kanji?" laughed Mob

"I have no clue…but it is a distinctive name." said Serizawa. She was laughing again. She was happy. She was happy and if she was happy when he was happy, too. She was just so…she was just so perfect like that. He could kiss her.

So he did.

He kissed her for the first time in forever. He missed this. Her. The way she felt. She was so…perfect. She had kissed Reigen but she was still perfect. She was like a china doll with a crack in it. The crack could be fixed…or ignored…because the china doll was still beautiful.

"You still…you still want to kiss me?" asked Mob. It had taken her a moment to kiss him back. She had been startled, surprised, taken off guard. She had thought that he would never want that with her again. She had kissed…and it had been so good…but that could never happen again. She should just forget it, that whole night. She should just…go with what was happening now.

They hadn't had sex in a while.

Having sex was what had gotten them in this predicament in the first place.

She never thought that he would ever want to have sex with her again.

So…this was a good thing?

"I do…I really do…because I love you so much." Said Serizawa. He missed that, her kisses. Her cuddles. Everything about her…he missed her. She had always been there with him but he missed her. She was…she had been with Reigen…and a part of him was still raw from that…but another part of him wanted to banish any and all thoughts of Reigen Arataka from her mind. He wanted to hold her and kiss her and make her….

Not the thoughts to be having while they waited for the results of a pregnancy test.

"And you still want us to…have sex…and stuff? Not right now I mean…but if you wanted to…we could…I mean, I can't be any more pregnant than I already might be…and I want you to feel good…and to be happy…" said Mob. She wanted them to be ok, that was all, and she wanted things to go back to normal. Whatever normal was in her life these days. She just wanted things to be ok…and maybe she also wanted, selfishly, to forget about what happened with Master Reigen. How amazing it was. How amazing every moment of that had been…

Because she could not think about that anymore.

Because that was over and she was back with Serizawa.

"I…I don't know what I want right now. I mean, I love you and I think that I might be becoming emotionally ready to be with you…in every way…but it's still…I want to and I don't. I mean….that's how we got into this predicament, isn't it?" asked Serizawa. Mob smiled.

"It is…so maybe we should wait…until the test is done, at least." Said Mob

"I can't believe that five minutes is taking this long." Said Serizawa

"Me too. They had one minute tests but the five minute one was cheaper…but maybe I shouldn't have cheaped out on this. I didn't know what to get. Minegishi just said pee on the stick thing and see if you're pregnant but he didn't say what kind to get." Said Mob

"Wait…why does he know?" asked Serizawa

"Oh. Well he got his period, he was born a girl, and he didn't have a napkin so I had to look really hard for one and then he asked if I was too young and I said that I wasn't but then he said that if I missed a bunch of periods then I was probably pregnant and that I should take a test. Oh! And also a period is when-" Said Mob. There was no point in being embarrassed. They had been naked together, had sex together, so really at this point a little blood wasn't that embarrassing. A baby might come out of there in nine months…a little blood was nothing compared to a new human that she had made and was responsible for….

"I know what a period is, you don't have to explain it….but I didn't know that Minegishi was born a girl. Huh. You think you know a person…" said Serizawa

"I didn't know either. I wanted to ask him how all of that worked but that seemed kind of personal…and also Minegishi was in a really bad mood, even for him. I think that the next time I have work I'll bring him some Midol and chocolate. That'll help." Said Mob

"He might like that…or not. It's hard to tell with him sometimes." Said Serizawa

"Yeah, he's really prickly, like a thorny bush, but he's also kind of nice once you realize that his default is being kind of mean." Said Mob

"He can be nice when he wants to be, and he makes really interesting conversation sometimes, he's read a lot of books." Said Serizawa

"Real books. He says that manga isn't a valid form of literature. Real books don't have pictures in them, he says." Said Mob

"But then what does he call art books?" asked Serizawa

"I know, right? I asked him and he just said that art books were their own thing and to get back to work because we weren't being paid for our literary opinions. He can be prickly like that sometimes but he's kind of nice. He says that we're friends. Well he said that we were friends if I thought that we were friends so I guess that makes us friends." Said Mob

"As much as he can be friends with someone. He was never close with anyone in the Ultimate Five. Well we were never that close with each other I mean. Not like us…anyway…." Said Serizawa

"Because you guys never had sex with each other?" asked Mob

"No! Well, yes…not that we ever wanted to…but we just never hung out that much unless we were working or drinking or something….not like how we're friends…and how we were before we stated…this…" Said Serizawa

"Before we slept together and became a couple, you mean?" asked Mob

"Yes, before all of that." Said Serizawa

"I'm glad….that we're still together…even after I mess up…" said Mob

"I forgive you and…and I'm trying to get better from it." Said Serizawa

"But I still hurt you." Said Mob

"I know you did…but I want us to move past it…and you said that you would never sleep with anyone else ever again…." said Serizawa. Mob nodded. She would never, ever, do that to him again. But that wasn't enough to make the guilt go away. She didn't like it, the guilt, and she wanted it gone. But there was no way to get rid of it. There would always be this thing between them, this thing that she had done…that he would never do…

But if he did….

"You know…if you wanted us to be even…then we could be. I mean…if you wanted to be with someone else…to sleep with someone else…then you could…" said Mob. Then they could be even and she could stop being guilty and then things could, truly, get better and then they could just move on and she would never have to think about what she had done ever again. Simple.

"I would never cheat on you! First of all, no, two wrongs don't make a right! And second of all I don't know anyone that I would ever even want to sleep with besides you….so no. I'm not doing that. I don't want us to be even. I don't want to put you through that…this…that." Said Serizawa

"It wouldn't….I don't know if it would bother me as much, I mean…I already did something bad so I feel bad so…so if you did something bad right back I know that I would deserve it." Said Mob

"No. I am not putting you through that kind of pain, ok? You matter too much to me….you matter so much to me…and we wouldn't even be even anyway." Said Serizawa

"What do you mean?" asked Mob. The whole thing was simple, very simple. She cheated on him so she deserved to be cheated on right back. There. What was so hard about that?

"You…you slept with Reigen because you're…in love with him. Not because you just…wanted to have sex and I wasn't around. There is nobody in this world besides you that I'm in love with and if there was…then I still wouldn't sleep with her. Not when I have you." Said Serizawa

"….but if you loved her then I would want you to be happy…and I don't think that I would mind….sharing you…because I love you. Because I love you then I would want you to be happy." Said Mob. If he had someone in his life like Master Reigen, someone who he loved just as much as he loved her…then she would want him to be happy with that person. She would. She really would.

"….would you really do that? Share me with someone else just to make me happy? Just because you love me?" asked Serizawa. That was crazy. That was not how this worked. When you loved someone and they loved you back then they were yours and you were theirs….right? Well he did learn, in the course of his research, that some people had what were called opened relationships….but at the time he thought that it was just some internet thing that didn't happen in real life like the guy that said that he broke both of his arms and then-

Yeah. No. Not thinking about that weirdness.

Time to think about this weirdness. The weirdness that she just proposed.

Was she proposing anything, even?

"Yes. Of course I would." Said Mob. There was nothing else to it. Did that mean that she didn't love him as much as he loved her? Did that mean that she was just a weird person for wanting to share and be shared like that? To not have a problem with him being with someone else? To want him not to have a problem with her being with someone else?

"I…I have to think about that…." Said Serizawa. Did that make him too…much? If he loved her then wouldn't it make the most sense to let her do what she wanted so long as she came back to him? But the thought of her and Reigen…it hurts. But when you loved someone then you just wanted them to be happy…and he does want her to be happy…but he also has himself and his own mental wellbeing to think about…and also their child…if she is pregnant…

How long could five minutes possibly take?

"There's nothing to think about, I think, because I'm never going to cheat on you again and you're never going to cheat on me." Said Mob. The whole conversation was just hypotheticals at this point. Right now she had to worry about the real, the now, the person that may or may not have been growing in her stomach.

Had it been five minutes yet?

She took her phone out of her pocket to see how much time was left on the timer….and the timer hadn't even started…because she had been so nervous when she set it that she had forgotten to hit start. Well then. How could she have…all this time they could have known…and she had forgotten to hit start.

She laughed.

She handed Serizawa her phone and laughed.

Because the entire thing was just so absurd she could do nothing else but laugh.

"Oh…you forgot to hit start…well then maybe we should just…check." Said Serizawa. He handed her back her phone and took a deep breath. He'd be the one to reach up and grab it, his arms were longer, and he…he wanted to know…

Well so did she, obviously, because she was the one who had to carry and birth the baby but…but he also wanted to know. It was like Christmas, almost, but in reverse because he wanted and didn't want to know what that damned test said.

Mob reached for it with her powers. She wanted to know first. She was the one who was pregnant…maybe…and she wanted to be the first one to know. Also Serizawa was reaching for it with his hands and that was gross because she peed on it. Very gross. The most grossest thing ever.

She held the test in front of them. They stared.

A minus symbol.


	23. The Heart Wants What it Wants

Ritsu and Sho stood in front of a grey apartment building. It looked just like the apartment buildings next to it, grey and dull, to anyone who couldn't see auras. Ritsu, however, could. He could and he didn't want to. His sister was up there. His sister who he had exploded at…and fought with…was up there and she needed to come home so he needed to forgive her about spilling his deepest and most closely guarded secret…he needed for forgive her because she was his sister and he loved her, that was all, it had nothing to do with crazy rumors that were going around.

"My sister is not having a baby." Said Ritsu for what felt like the thousandth time.

"I'm pretty sure that she is." Said Sho for what felt like the hundredth thousand time. He shook the plastic bag he was holding in front of Ritsu's face.

Sho had been insistent that Shigeko was having a baby. Apparently there was an ex-Claw group chat that Sho had managed to get added to and apparently within that group chat was someone who made it his life's work to stalk Shigeko through webcams and security cameras and whatever else he could just so he could make sure that she wasn't planning on pulling a President Suzuki anytime soon…and apparently in the course of that guy's stalking he came to the conclusion that Shigeko was having a baby….

Which she was not.

Because that would mean that she and Serizawa did…that. Which they did not because that would be weird and gross and nobody was allowed to take advantage of his sister like that. As far as Ritsu was concerned they spent that long weekend, the one that mom wouldn't stop yelling about, sitting on opposite side of the room facing the wall fully dressed while funeral music played in the background.

"Just go back to Family Mart and return all of that stuff. Shigeko doesn't need it, she's not having a baby." Said Ritsu

"That's not what Hatori said." Said Sho

"I don't care what Hatori said, my sister is not having a baby, she can't be." Said Ritsu

"Um, ok, I haven't been to school since I was seven and God knows my dad wasn't about to have any kind of talk with me that didn't end in his big take over the world dream but I do know that when people do it babies come afterwards. Guys and girls, I mean, not, like, us….but that would be cool…." Said Sho

"…my sister is not pregnant." Said Ritsu

"She is. She totally is and I don't know why you're being so weird about this. People fall in love and get married and have kids all the time. Are you still pissed at her? I mean I kind of am but…babies. I didn't even know I like, liked, babies until this. I mean I like animals and I like having pets…and kids are kind of like pets…" said Sho. This was so cool! Risu's big sis may have been kind of a bitch back there when she told on Ritsu and him…not that Sho would ever call her a bitch to her face or where Ritsu could hear….but none of that mattered now because babies! Or maybe just one, either way she was going to have one and he was going to be someone's uncle!

"I'm not….I'm still a little mad at her but I mostly just want her to come back…and she is not having a baby. She is not having Serizawa's baby." Said Ritsu. This was terrible. He should not have exploded at his sister. He should not have yelled at his sister. He should have been a good brother and been nicer to her and also kept her from…whatever it was that Serizawa and here were doing…he knew exactly what they were doing. They were doing what he and Sho were doing except instead of a few months separating them, he was slightly older and eons more mature than Sho, it was several years. Almost twenty years.

Which was just…ick.

"Hey! He's a nice guy, ok? He's really nice and fun and back when…back before…he was pretty much my only friend. I mean ever since we started this I've kind of been blowing him off and all but…well so has he! Sorry just…I just want everyone to be cool, that's all. I just want us all to be ok with each other and…yeah. That's why I came with today even though there are like a million other things that I could be doing-" said Sho

"Sure." Said Ritsu with a laugh. Not a mean one, no, he knew that Sho knew that he was kidding.

"Hey, I lead a very busy life! Online school, taking care of my babies, learning how to cook tiny meals for my babies…" said Sho

"Please don't call them that." Said Ritsu with a groan.

"What? They're pretty much my babies. I mean they're not human or anything but I love them and take care of them and when I day they're the beneficiaries of my estate." Said Sho

"So they get your sketchbooks, extra phone charger, and that jacket you wear with everything?" Said Ritsu

"No, you get the jacket." Said Sho. He took it off and draped it across Ritsu's shoulders. Ritsu smiled and ducked his head down. Right. Not now. Now was not the time to be thinking about Sho…now was the time to think about his sister…not like that…and think about begging her to come home. It was easy. She was in that building. Her aura was right there…and so was Serizawa's…it wasn't that Ritsu didn't like Serizawa, he was ok, Ritsu just didn't like anyone that was trying to sleep with his sister….or in love with his sister….in love with his sister while being in his thirties and making her take care of him and stuff…apparently he had some kind of breakdown, Sho didn't say or know why, and he made Shigeko take care of him.

Which was not ok.

But Ritsu was not going to fight him. It would upset Sho and Shigeo and Ritsu was not in the mood for dealing with any more upset people. Mom and dad, mostly mom because dad was spending a lot of time in denial land, were very upset about all of this. Mom was doing a lot of yelling and when she wasn't yelling she was about to yell and when she wasn't about to yell she was crying and saying things like 'where did I go wrong?' and calling herself a bad mother.

At least she had lifted Ritsu's grounding, though, so that was nice.

"Come on, they probably know we're here. The longer we stand out here like a couple of creepers the more people will think that we're a couple of creepers." Said Sho. He did not understand Ritsu at all sometimes. This was a good thing. He was going to be an uncle!

"I'm…give me a minute. I just have to calm down…and stay that way…" said Ritsu. He wanted to punch Serizawa in his stupid sister stealing face but that would not end well. He just had to, calmly and diplomatically, tell Shigeko that he forgave her for telling mom about him and Sho and that he would really like it if she came home.

"Don't be like that. Come on, you'll see. Serizawa's a great guy and by the end of this you'll be calling him 'brother'." Said Sho. Ritsu looked visibly ill at that and Sho didn't understand why at all.

"Please…never say that again." said Ritsu. If Shigeko really was having a baby then that would mean that she would be….marrying….Serizawa….and then he and Serizawa would be related…he looked down at the plastic shopping bag in Sho's hand and wondered how long it would take to suffocate himself.

"What? That Serizawa's going to be your-" said Sho

"What apartment number is it?" asked Ritsu. Serizawa was not going to be his brother. His sister was not going to marry Serizawa or have his kids or anything like that. He was going to apologize for exploding at her and then she was going to come home and then everything was going to go back to normal.

Or whatever passed for normal in Ritsu's life.

For a moment Mob believed that everything had gone back to normal…or as normal as things could be in her life.

It was early. She didn't have school, it was a Saturday, but she did have work in the afternoon. But it wasn't afternoon yet, she could tell by the light coming in through the windows, so she didn't have to get up yet. She was just so comfortable…

She snuggled back into the chest she was pinned against. An arm held her tight like she was a teddy bear. Fingers were splayed out around her stomach. Another arm was under her head like a pillow. She was smothered but…but a comfortable sort of smothered. A nice sort of smothered. One that she could get used to. One that she had gotten used to.

This was what love felt like.

Love could be a little bit smothering, a little too much, but it was still love. She loved Serizawa and he loved her. That was why he had taken her back, that was why he let her stay, that was why he forgave her, and that was why he had been ready to spend his life with her…and their baby…

His fingers were splayed over her stomach. That didn't mean that he wanted…he had been just as scared as she was. Well…not really. She had been terrified but he had been…a little scared. He was the one to reassure HER which was…something. She usually was the one who had to comfort him. That was good, though, that he had comforted her. He still loved her and he still wanted to be with her and that was what mattered.

Don't think about Master Reigen.

It's easier thought than done. She couldn't help but think about him even after all of this. Would he have held her like this? Would he have…if she cheated on him would he have taken her back? If she had been…or thought that she had been pregnant would he have been ok with it? As ok with it as Serizawa had been? Master Reigen could panic, sometimes, even if he didn't like to admit it. Serizawa had been so calm…Master Reigen might not have been. Really it was not the situation to be calm about. They had almost made a new human being. Together they had almost made a new person that they would have been totally responsible for….and Serizawa had been so calm throughout the whole thing. He had been there for her. He was still there for her. He was there, right there, and she had no idea if Master Reigen would have been there for her.

She needed to be grateful for what she had. For who she had.

She and Master Reigen were over and done with. She could feel it, now, especially since she was less distracted. Taking care of Serizawa had taken up pretty much all of the mental space that she had. Now things were good between them. The blinds were opened and the room was clean and he was sleeping right there with her…things were good again. She almost wished that they weren't. That was a terrible way to feel, of course, because she loved him and she wanted the best for him.

She deserved to feel bad about what she had done.

She had done it. Nobody had made her do it. She had just done it. She had only been thinking of herself and in doing so she ruined what she and Master Reigen had together…and she had almost ruined what she and Serizawa had. All because she had been selfish. She had a problem with that, maybe, being selfish. She had started this whole thing with Serizawa because she had been hurt. That was all that she had thought about, that night, that she was hurting and that he could make her feel better. He had made her feel better…but then it was over. It ended and THIS had begun…

She was happy.

She was in love.

She wanted this.

She was done being selfish. She was done only thinking of herself. She had him to think about now. She had to think about how her actions affected him. She cheated on him and he almost ended up a shut-in again. She had sex with him, weeks ago, and that ended up being the thing that made him fall in love with her. Also they had almost made a person together. She needed to be better about taking her medicine. That was selfish of her, too, the way she just sort of forgot to take her medicine sometimes. She was done being selfish. She had fixed, sort of, her relationship with Serizawa and she was not risking it again. She had no way of repairing her relationship with Master Reigen…and it hurt…but she had done that to herself. She had no way to fix her relationship with Master Reigen.

Or her brother.

She felt him, his aura. Close. Sho's, too, but it was Ritsu that she was worried about. The last time he spoke to her in person they had been in a fight. He texted her, sometimes, to ask her to come home. He said that he was sorry about exploding at her and she had said sorry for spilling his secrets to mom and dad but…but they had still fought. She had still damaged her relationship with him and she had no idea how to get back to normal.

And she did not want to figure it out now.

She wanted to be comfortable and happy. She wanted to take these moments of the morning, before her day started, and draw them out forever. But she couldn't because she could feel her brother's aura out there and just…hanging out. Sho's, too. She let her aura rest against Serizawa's. He was asleep, still, and she wished that she could just close her eyes and join him.

But she couldn't.

Because Ritsu and Sho's auras were moving closer and, presumably, so were the people that those auras belonged to. She did not want to fight again. Sho was probably still mad at her, too. Not only had she told mom and dad about Sho and Ritsu's relationship but she had also cheated on Serizawa…and Sho was friends with Serizawa…so she had that fight coming to her.

Maybe if she just hid under the covers they'd get bored and go home.

She knew that it wouldn't work. Well Sho might get bored and find something else to do but not Ritsu. They knew that she was in there. The two of them must have been able to see her aura. She shone brightly, she knew that she did, and there was no hiding it. What was coming? Yelling? Fighting? Or worse, talking? Talking about her coming home…about how upset mom and dad were….about how much he missed her…

She couldn't go home. Serizawa needed her.

She stayed in bed, very still, because part of her hoped that they would just…find something else to do. She was sorry for the things that she had done, all the things that she had done, and she had said so before. There was no point in hashing it out. If she left Serizawa then he could end up backsliding and then he would never rejoin society…and it would be her fault.

All of this was her fault, already.

She didn't need anything else to be her fault.

She pulled the blanket up over her head as best as she could. She did not want to deal with this…but she had to. She had to because she just heard the 'ding' of the elevator. Other people lived in this building, on this floor, but she knew that it hadn't been one of the neighbors. That was Ritsu and Sho. She could see their auras and she could hear Sho's voice travelling down the hall, he talked loud sometimes, and if she really strained she could hear the way their footsteps fell against the floor…

Then she heard a knock at the door.

"Hey, I know you're home! I can see your auras!" said Sho. Mob shook her head. She wished that she could hide her aura but nobody had that power. Even when Sho bent the light around himself to turn invisible his aura could still be visible.

"Wh-what?" asked Serizawa groggily. What time was it? He opened his eyes but then immediately closed them. Sunlight. He had left the blinds opened.

"Nothing. You can go back to bed. My brother and Sho are just at the door, that's all." Said Mob

"Right now?" asked Serizawa as he stretched his legs. His toes scraped against her leg. Thank God that he still had his socks on. She didn't. She had kicked them off already.

"Yes, right now." Said Mob simply. She felt him stretch his legs. He snaked his arm out from under her head. She rubbed her neck. That had been an odd position to sleep in. She hadn't gotten much sleep at all. Nope. None at all. Maybe she could just stay in bed and sleep until work time…or until Ritsu got bored. Whichever happened first.

"Oh! I'll let them in!" said Serizawa. He untangled himself from her and got up. This was…unexpected. Well mostly because Sho didn't usually knock. He had a habit of just letting himself in. Well he had, before, but since Mob he had stayed away when she was there. He never told him, exactly, what Mob was to him now but he figured that Sho could get enough of a clue. Plus, well, there was the group chat. Why people were so fascinated with his and Mob's relationship he did not know.

"You don't-" said Mob. She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to but, well, he kind of did. It was rude to pretend not to be home when they so clearly were. She stayed in bed as he untangled himself from her. He pressed a kiss to her forehead as he got up. She let him. That was nice…that part. The coming fight, however, would not be nice. It would not be nice at all.

But it was going to happen.

She closed her eyes as she heard the door open. Sho was knocking, now, she could tell because Ritsu never knocked so loud or in such a nonstop way. She closed her eyes and pulled the blanket up over her head.

"Good morning." Said Serizawa as he opened the door. Mob was tired, really tired, and that was why she had stayed in bed. That was the only explanation.

"Hey! Serizawa, it's been forever. How've you been?" asked Sho. Really, he did not understand Ritsu. He was just standing there and shaking like he wanted to pop Serizawa one…which he very well most likely did. Sho wasn't little. Ritsu's big sis had been staying here for days. It was early in the morning. Serizawa was still in pajamas and…he craned his neck to side…Ritsu's big sis was still in bed.

Yeah, it was obvious.

But Sho didn't care.

Serizawa deserved to be happy and for some reason Ritsu's big sis made him happy. Even though she sang like a bird, Sho couldn't have roasted a marshmallow with the heat her parents must have been putting on her, she made Serizawa happy. Sho could forgive her. She made Serizawa happy and she was having his baby, too. Yeah…he could forgive her.

"I've been…fine. How are you two? And why are you here so early in the morning? Not that I'm complaining! Please, come in." said Serizawa. He stepped away from the door. Sho practically dragged Ritsu across the threshold.

"We're fine." Muttered Ritsu. His fists were clenched at his sides. He used every fiber of willpower within himself to control the impulse to punch Serizawa in the face. This was…he was not stupid. He knew what his sister had been doing with Serizawa….and he had nothing against his sister finding someone to love…but that someone shouldn't have been Serizawa. He was…he seemed harmless but he had also gotten Shigeko to start a relationship with him…he eyes the bag clenched in Sho's hand….

"We're great. Well mostly great. His parents are being all in our business and stuff but it's whatever. It is what it is." Said Sho with a shrug. He kicked his shoes off without a thought besides that they needed to be in the genkan. Ritsu took his off slowly and deliberately. He placed them in the genkan….facing the wrong way. He saw his sister's shoes, too. They were close to Serizawa's…he nudged them to the side.

"Right, Mob had told me about that. I'm so sorry about how your parents reacted to the news about you two." Said Serizawa. He got the feeling that Mob's little brother did not want to be there. Closed off body language and an aura that felt more than a little hostile. But why? He couldn't think of anything that he had done…well besides date Mob. Actually that might have been it. The age thing again.

"…they're fine…." Said Ritsu through his teeth

"They aren't nearly as mad about us as they are about you and Ritsu's big sis. Like, they've been fighting nonstop about you guys, and I'm not exaggerating-" said Sho before he was elbowed in the ribs.

"Is my sister here?" asked Ritsu getting to the point of this visit. He only asked to be polite. He could see her aura and he assumed that the lump under the blankets was her.

"She's still in bed. Mob, are you awake? Your brother and Sho are here." Said Serizawa. She was awake, he could tell by her aura, but maybe she was trying to go back to sleep. He felt her brother's eyes boring into him. Right. They had fought, hadn't they, but he knew that they would make up. Sho always had the best things to say about Ritsu. Mob, too.

"…I'm awake." Said Mob. She pulled the blanket off of herself and climbed out of bed. Well, time to face what she had done. She was tired of it, facing what she had done, but she had to. This was nobody's fault but her own.

"Sister…" said Ritsu. He tried as hard as he could to keep from reaching over and strangling Serizawa. This was…this was Serizawa's apartment. That was Serizawa's bed. His sister had…gross. He knew that his was being immature but…gross. That was the only word that fit the situation. Serizawa and Shigeko…no. He did not need visual confirmation.

"Hi…Ritsu…and Sho." said Mob. She evened out her nightshirt. Ritsu looked…not good. His aura had seemed mad, before, but not it just looked like he was going to be motion sick. He was turning that color after all…

"Hey Ritsu's big sis." Said Sho. He didn't get, not really, why Ritsu looked like he was about to either throw up or start hitting someone. Love was love as far as Sho was concerned.

"You can call me Mob if you want to." Said Mob

"I know." Said Sho

"Or Shigeko, if you want to. That's my actual name." Said Mob

"I know." Said Sho simply. He knew her name, he totally knew her name, but it just didn't fit. She was Ritsu's big sis, not Mob because she was in no way a background character, and she certainly wasn't Shigeko even though that was totally her actual, on paper, legal name. it would have just been weird at this point to refer to her as anything other than Ritsu's big sis.

"What are you doing here?" asked Mob getting right to the point. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and began to braid it with her powers. She felt self-conscious, just a bit, because she still wasn't dressed for the day. She was still in her nightshirt, the one with the sleeping kittens on it, and Serizawa was still in his pajamas too. He probably didn't care, though, that he wasn't dressed. He said that he wore only pajamas for fifteen years after all. That was as long as she had been alive.

"Sister, I forgive you and I want you to come home." Said Ritsu

"Ok, I accept your forgiveness but I don't want to come home. I told you that already. Ritsu, I love you but I don't want to go back home and get yelled at and stuff." Said Mob

"Mom and dad wouldn't yell at you." Said Ritsu. Well they would but they'd be happy that she was home. Dad yelled at mom for driving her away and not taking good enough care of her, mom yelled at dad because he put everything on her. That was the gist of it as far as Ritsu could tell. Mom and dad were yelling because Shigeko was gone and if she came back then they'd have no reason to yell and everything could go back to something approximating normal.

"I don't think that you know your parents very well at all." Said Sho. Of course Ritsu's mom and dad would yell, they had done nothing but yell for days. It was like they were training for the opera or something.

"You can do whatever you want, Mob. I wouldn't mind if you stayed but if your family wants you back-" said Serizawa. He took her hand as she said that. Judging by the flash of dark blue and the way that Sho grabbed onto Ritsu's arm that may have been the wrong thing to do.

"Will you stop touching my sister?" asked Ritsu

"Will you mind your own business? Sorry, I'm sorry, that was a mean thing to say. I just…I don't want to come home and I wish that you would just listen to me." Said Mob. She was not going to be mean to her little brother. She was not going to fight with her little brother. She loved Ritsu so much and fighting with him was the last thing that she wanted.

"But why? What's so bad about coming home?" asked Ritsu

"I don't want mom to yell at me and tell me that I can't date Serizawa anymore. Also we had a fight and I still feel bad about that. I really do. I should have known that you wouldn't have told on me. I guess that I just wasn't thinking….I've been doing a lot of that, lately…" said Mob. Serizawa was still holding her hand. She held his right back.

"You're right, I wouldn't have told on you…but that's not the point. The point is that-that I miss you and I'm tired of mom and dad fighting and I just…I don't get it. Why you won't come home." Said Ritsu

"I already said why." Said Mob

"Because of him." said Ritsu. He had a tone, there, which Mob did not like.

"Yes. Because of Serizawa. Mom says that as long as I live under her roof then I have to follow her rules. So I left. I'm not a child and she can't tell me who I am and am not allowed to date. I love Serizawa and he loves me. That's all that matters." Said Mob simply

"You…you don't have to stay, though, if you don't want to." Said Serizawa. First of all that was the most beautiful thing that he had ever heard in his life…that was SFW. She loved him that much…but that brought him to the second thing. Her family missed her and they wanted her back. She wasn't allowed to date him because of the age thing, he didn't get it, and that was why she had moved in with him…possibly permanently. The thought that doesn't scare him that much, her living with him forever. He had been prepared to have a baby with her after all. Compared to bringing a new human being into the world her moving in was nothing. He wanted her to stay, he wanted her to always be with him, but he also didn't want to drive a wedge between her and her family. These people were going to be his in-laws in a few years and he wanted to be on good terms with them. Also she loved her family so much….and being away from them must have been causing her some sadness even though she didn't say anything to that effect.

"Why won't anyone listen to me!?" asked Mob. She was speaking plain Japanese. She did not want to go back home. What did she have to do? Submit it in writing?

"I'm listening. You and Serizawa are a thing and you want to stay here. I have no problem with that at all. Actually I think that this whole thing is great. Me and Serizawa, we go way back, and yeah, I was pissed at you before and stuff but we're ok now. You love him and he loves you and love is a beautiful thing. Also you guys are having a baby, too, which is great." Said Sho. Mob blinked. Serizawa mirrored her.

"Sho…shut up…" said Ritsu. Sho went from holding him back to holding him up. No. There was no way that his sister was having a baby, and not Serizawa's! Not that he got a say, he knew that he didn't get a say, but it was his job as her little brother to keep her from guys who wanted…that…from her…and to keep her from doing something like have a baby when she was just a year older than him…not that he didn't like babies. He had no real opinion on them. He just…if his sister wanted to have a baby that was fine but why did it have to be Serizawa? He was so…old. Really old. Over thirty years old.

"How did you about that?" asked Mob. She knew, from Serizawa, that ex-Claw members were very interested in her life. They were worried, he said, that she might be like Sho's dad. She only wanted friends, really, and a good life. She had no desire to take over the world or anything like that. People still worried, though, and kept track of what she did and stuff like that. She hadn't really minded, before….

But that was private.

The most private.

Even though she wasn't pregnant it was still private.

"Group chat." Said Sho

"Wait…so are you…?" asked Ritsu. He did not know how to feel about that. On the one hand if she really wanted to have a baby and be Mrs. Serizawa then, really, he knew that he should have been happy for her. If it had been anyone else, well not anyone, but if it had been someone like Hanazawa or someone from the Awakening Lab or one of the guys from her class or her club or literally anyone that was her age then he would not have had the desire to beat the shit out of them…as badly as he had now, anyway. On the other hand even if it was with someone her own age…people their age did not have kids. That was just not done. Ritsu had never, ever, met anyone that was their age and had a kid. That was the stuff of those dramas that mom and dad watched, not real life.

"No! I'm not…and that's not anybody's business at all. That's between me and Serizawa…not me and Serizawa and the whole rest of the world!" said Mob. She covered her face with her hands. She did not need anyone, let alone her own little brother, digging into that part of her life. The clothes off part. Not that she was ashamed…she just did not want her little brother or anyone else speculating on anything that had even the smallest bit to do with the clothes off part of her and Serizawa's relationship. Not that there was even much of one these days. Clothes off parts.

"Thank God-" said Ritsu

"Ritsu, stop talking about that." Said Mob. Serizawa patted her on the back. He didn't want anyone speculating about that part of his life, either, but he wasn't nearly as embarrassed as she was. Maybe because he was used to Sho saying pretty much anything and asking whatever questions popped into his head. Maybe, also, because he was used to his mother asking a lot of questions, too, about that part of his life. He didn't know how many times he would have to tell her that, no, he was not breaking any laws and that, yes, she wanted to do everything that they did. Not that he would ever give his mother details about what he and Mob did.

Also he had no idea that the consent laws were so nuanced.

"What am I supposed to do with all of this baby stuff?" asked Sho holding up the family mart bag in his hand.

"I don't know, return it I guess….wait, did you go to the one I work at?" asked Mob. Who else thought that she was pregnant? How many people was she supposed to tell that she wasn't? And why was this so interesting to everyone?

"You work at Family Mart?" asked Ritsu incredulously. Of all the places in the city…Family Mart? Why? She worked for Reigen…or maybe not anymore. Good. Ritsu never trusted that guy, not for one second.

"Yes. The one on the corner of Saccharin and Aspartame." Said Mob

"I went to the one on Cardamom across from the manga store. I would have said, though, if I went to yours." Said Sho

"I would have said hi to you too." Said Mob

"Wait, why do you work at Family Mart, sister?" asked Ritsu

"To earn money. I also work at a flower shop, too." Said Mob simply

"But…why?" asked Ritsu. Something happened with Reigen. Whatever it was Ritsu was certain that he needed to do…something. Reigen had obviously shown his true intentions so Shigeko left him. Well nobody treated his big sister like that. It was bad enough that she was in a relationship with Serizawa, at least that was about love….ick...but Reigen wasn't after love. He just wanted to sleep with Shigeko, it was obvious, and nobody treated Ritsu's big sister like that.

"Because adults have jobs and earn money to contribute to the household." Said Mob. Ritsu was too young to get it. He was younger than her, still just a kid. She was an adult and had to act like one.

"You really don't have to. I have some money saved up, I can take care of you." Said Serizawa. That was his job after all, to take care of her. He was the man and she was the woman and the man was supposed to take care of the woman. Well women had jobs and stuff these days but he still felt like such a…failure. She shouldn't have to go out there and kill herself working just because he was…this. This person. This person who was afraid to even look out the window sometimes…

"I don't need you to take care of me, I can take care of you." Said Mob. She was not a child, she didn't need anyone to take care of her. Besides, she had to take care of him. She was the one who made him backslide. It was her fault that he had almost locked himself away from the world for another fifteen, or however many, years.

"You don't have to take care of me….I can take care of you." Said Serizawa. She was not his mother. He was not going to make her waste years of her life on him like that.

"See? He loves her, she loves him, it's a love fest in here. You can stop being all weird now." Said Sho

"…I am not being weird. I am not the weird part of all of this." said Ritsu. Serizawa really loves Shigeko…he should be happy. She could have so easily ended up with Reigen. He, obviously, just wanted to sleep with her. Serizawa loved her for real and he was a good guy, really, and Ritsu hadn't disliked him…and still didn't. Serizawa was still a nice guy, and Sho's only friend for years which earned him some points in Ritsu's book, but he was also dating Shigeko….and everything that came with that…and he was still so much older than what was socially acceptable….

"You're the only one who's got a problem with this. Well you and your mom and dad, but anyway this isn't nearly as bad as you guys are making it out to be. I mean, come on, why judge? I mean we-" said Sho

"This is not the same and you know it! We're the same age, Sho, and we…you know…love each other and…yeah." Said Ritsu not able to meet anyone's eyes. He was not being a hypocrite.

"We love each other." Said Serizawa. The age thing, always with the age thing. He knew that it was one hell of an age gap but he loved Mob and she loved him. They had a good relationship, aside from the single infidelity that would never be repeated, and he would do anything for her. He would give her whatever kind of life that she wanted. He would give her the best life that he possibly could. Her and their, eventual, children. Not now children. Eventual.

"I know you do…I know…" said Ritsu

"He's weirded out by the age gap." Said Sho incase Serizawa didn't get it. He had a history of not getting things after all.

"Ritsu, it's really none of your business who I date or who I love." Said Mob

"I'm your brother, I'm supposed to protect you from-" said Ritsu

"I don't need to be protected, Ritsu. I'm the one who saved you, remember? I saved you and I saved everyone and-and-and this isn't even something that I need saving from. I never said anything about you being in love with Sho and he beat you up and burned down our house! I know that you and Sho love each other and I know that Sho is a good person. I trust you, Ritsu, and I trust that you would never be with someone who wasn't good for you. Why can't you show me the same amount of trust? Why do you have to be like this? I am not a child and I can run my own life!" said Mob

"I-I'm not trying to run your life-" said Ritsu

"It feels like it." Said Mob

"Well I'm not. I just…I want to keep you safe. I mean I get it, you love him and he loves you, but I just…I want you to come home, too, and I want to know why being…here…with him is better than being at home." Said Ritsu

"What's wrong with being here?" asked Mob

"….this is only one room….sister. We have a whole house and you want to live in just one room." Said Ritsu

"I don't care. I like this room." Said Mob. She may have missed, from time to time, her old bedroom….and also the ability to have just a moment or two of privacy….or just time to herself. But that wasn't anything that she couldn't deal with.

"We could move, though, if you wanted to." Said Serizawa. This was fine for him, he preferred to live like that actually. One room, like his bedroom. She deserved better, though, so much better….

"I don't want to move and I don't want to go back home, either. This is where I live and I'm very happy here, that's all. Ok? I can't leave Serizawa and I won't….and I don't want to talk about this anymore, ok?" Said Mob

"But sister-" said Ritsu

"No, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I don't want you to ask me to come home, I don't want to have to explain myself anymore, and I don't want you to talk about me having a baby, either. Ok? Sho please return all that baby stuff to the Family Mart, ok?" asked Mob

"Are you sure that you don't want it? I mean you and Serizawa go at it-" said Sho

"Sho!" said Ritsu. No. No way, there was no way he was digging into that portion of his big sister's life.

"I don't want to talk about that and I wish that you wouldn't, either. I don't ever talk about what you do…I mean I have no idea what two boys would even do…but I don't talk about what you guys do anyway." Said Mob

"Why not just Google-?" asked Sho

"Sho!" said Ritsu

"Because I don't want to…and I don't want to talk about this anymore. Ok? We can talk about something else…or something. We can play games or watch TV before I have to go to work or we can have breakfast-" said Mob

"What's for breakfast?" asked Sho

"We aren't-" said Ritsu. If that was the way that she was going to be then fine. He didn't understand this, any of this. Why she could just leave home and be, here, with Serizawa. He was a nice guy but he wasn't really…anything beyond that. Judging by the plastic models on the shelves and the games stacked up by the TV he and Shigeko had some stuff in common but a mutual love of EVA was not something to leave home over. Serizawa wasn't…a lot of things. He wasn't attractive, aside from being tall, and he wasn't...well Ritsu didn't really know the man. Maybe he had hidden depths or something. Maybe there was something about Serizawa that he was just not privy to, something that made his sister run away from home to be with him.

"He doesn't speak for my stomach. Come on, let's make breakfast. I'll show you how to make crepes." Said Sho walking over to the kitchen. He tossed is bag of what the lady at Family Mart called 'essential supplies for any new mother' over in the corner.

"Aren't those just thin pancakes?" asked Mob grateful for the change of subject. If it meant getting away from the subject of her and Serizawa she would gladly help Sho cook a full Japanese dinner for his hamster if she had to.

"There are distinctions! Many, many, many distinctions!" said Sho over the clatter of pots and pans. The room was then enveloped in a red aura. Ritsu stood awkwardly. Serizawa stood even more awkwardly. Well then.

"Do-do you want something to drink? We have tea, coffee, water, milk, soda, miso soup…wait, that's not a drink. Sorry. But we do have miso soup if you want some. It's the instant kind from the packet, though, so maybe you won't like that. Mob likes it. She likes instant food. She's a good cook, too! I mean of course you knew that, she's your sister. You've known each other for your entire lives. Well not her entire life, because she's a year older than you, but for your entire life. What's it like having a sibling? I don't have any, at least I think I don't. I haven't seen my father since I was about three so he might have remarried and had some more kids. I don't know, I never really thought to look into that. Not that I don't care about my family or anything! I just think that if someone doesn't want to know me then I don't want to bother them. I'm sorry if I bother you, too…not that I assume that I'm bothering you. I mean you seem bothered but there could be other reasons for that and-" said Serizawa. He just could not shut his stupid mouth. It was the way Ritsu was looking at him. Very…intense….

"It's you." Said Ritsu simply. Sho and Shigeko were cooking and talking in the kitchen. Sho, at least, would be there for a while. Ritsu wasn't about to leave without him and deal with the fallout from that. Besides…he hadn't seen his sister in so long. If this was what she wanted, truly what she wanted, then he owed it to her to try and understand.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you or anything. Actually I want….I want us to be friends. Sho always has the nicest things to say about you, Mob too. She says that you're the best little brother in the world and I can tell that she means that. I just want us to at least get along. If you truly don't like me I underst-" said Serizawa

"I don't….I don't dislike you as a person. You're a nice guy. I just…why are you with my sister?" asked Ritsu

"What do you mean?" asked Serizawa. He loved her and she loved him. What more did her little brother need? What more was needed besides mutual love?

"I mean why are you dating her? She's half your age, more than half. Why don't you just date someone your own age?" asked Ritsu. He knew that he was being intrusive and rude but he didn't care. He spoke quietly, though. Sho may have made enough noise for ten people when he was cooking but that did not mean that Shigeko couldn't at least hear part of this conversation…and Ritsu did not want to fight with his big sister again.

"Because I don't know anyone my own age…that I would want to date, I mean. I mean the only woman, besides your sister, that I talk to is my mother…but I don't want to meet any other women anyway. I'm with Mob because I love her. We have things in common and we enjoy each other's company and we take care of each other. It doesn't matter how old she is, she's still Mob and I love her. I'm telling the truth." Said Serizawa. The age thing. He knew that he needed to get used to answering questions like this. He didn't give a damn about age…but the rest of the world did.

"….are you going to get married?" asked Ritsu. Serizawa wasn't going to do anything to hurt her…so maybe he should just try and be ok with this. He could be ok with this so long as he knew that Serizawa was serious about her. That he wasn't like Reigen, just after one thing.

"If she wants to." Said Serizawa. That was an easy question to answer, much easier than the last one.

"Then are you…are you guys going to have…kids?" asked Ritsu. Serizawa was sincere and sincerely in love with Shigeko….and it was the grossest thing ever. So gross. The most gross. Not just because of the age gap, though it was NOT helping matters, but because of the simple fact that Shigeko was his sister.

"If she wants to." Said Serizawa again. Another easy question. He wanted whatever Mob wanted. That was love, wanting what the other person wanted and doing what the other person wanted you to do.

"…what do you want?" asked Ritsu

"Whatever Mob wants." Said Serizawa

"That's it? I mean…I don't know. You're just going to do whatever my sister tells you to?" asked Ritsu. That sounded…not healthy. He loved Sho, he really did, but he did not go along with every terrible, reckless, half-baked idea that went through his mind.

"Of course, I love her and I only want to make her happy." Said Serizawa

"That's….ok. I guess." Said Ritsu. Well Serizawa wasn't after one thing….so yay…? But that did not sound healthy at all and now Ritsu found himself concerned, not for Shigeko, but for Serizawa.

"You don't have to worry about her. I can take care of her and make her happy and whatever else she wants, and I'm not making her stay, either. She can go whenever she wants to, she just doesn't want to. I'm sorry, though, about the trouble that I've caused your family. I didn't mean to start any fights and I'm sorry, too, that your parents found out about you and Sho. I never intended that to happen but I am glad that your parents haven't forbade you from being together. You make Sho so happy…and you make Shigeko happy, too. So please, can we be friends? Or at least…not enemies?" asked Serizawa. He was sincere, the most sincere he had ever been.

"…sure…I mean, this could be worse…you could have been Reigen…." said Ritsu. He would have to make the best of this. Maybe in ten or twenty years the age gap wouldn't be so weird, either. This could have been worse, so much worse. At least she hadn't run away to live with Reigen. Then Ritsu would have had to run him out of town plain and simple. At least Serizawa was a nice guy, sincere, and would do anything for Shigeko.

"You know about Reigen?" asked Serizawa. His aura jumped out and disrupted the careful flow of energy that Sho had created. A mixing bowl almost hit the ground before Mob caught it with her powers. She just sort of held it in midair. She hadn't been eavesdropping, no, she had been listening to Sho tell her about how he learned to make crepes back when he had been staying at the Claw base in France, when she heard Master Reigen's name mentioned.

She did not want to talk about him.

She would gladly discuss the intimate details of every clothes off part of her relationship with Serizawa if it meant not talking about Master Reigen.

"What's there to know about Reigen?" asked Ritsu, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. He saw Serizawa's eyes and aura dart over to Shigeko. So Reigen had tried something…well then. That was the last thing that he would ever try.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" said Serizawa quickly. No. Hell no. There was no goddamned mother fucking way that he was discussing this with Mob's little brother. He didn't want to discuss this with anyone. Ever. The end. He wanted to pretend that it never happened. Even thinking about it now was like someone was reaching inside of him through his bellybutton and trying to pull out handfuls of his organs.

"What did he-" asked Ritsu

"None of your business! Talk about something else!" shouted Mob. She didn't mean to shout, it just came out that way. She could feel Sho's eyes on her. Then on Serizawa. Then on her again. His aura settled on hers. He did say that if she ever did anything to hurt Serizawa

But then he went back to normal.

"So back to crepes. This guy we were staying with put lemon on them and I was all 'what the fuck is that matter with you' because you know how disgusting citrus is…." Said Sho. The wheels in his head turned as he talked. Something was up with Reigen and Ritsu's big sis….but he didn't want to jump to any conclusions. Serizawa had been radio silent for a while last week and Sho had been too busy with his own shit to check on his best friend….but Ritsu's big sis wouldn't have…well she liked Reigen, anyone with eyes could have seen it….and Reigen might have liked her back…

But this was Ritsu's big sis.

She wasn't capable of doing anything like that.

Across the room Serizawa wracked his mind trying to figure out something, anything, else to talk about. His eyes settled on a misshaped UNIT 1 model. He prayed that liking EVA was a family trait.

It was.

Ritsu didn't go on and on about it like Mob was apt to but he could hold up a conversation until breakfast was ready. Then Sho picked up the conversation but somehow turned it over to his hamster. Serizawa was grateful, so grateful, because Reigen was the last thing he wanted to talk about. His former best friend. The man who slept with his girlfriend….the man who punched him in the face…and the man he had exploded at. He missed Reigen, actually, which was the stupidest thing. He missed Reigen even after what happened….

His eyes went to his phone, it was still charging, and he hadn't checked his messages that day.

Had Reigen apologized again?

Was once enough? Serizawa did not know. He missed Reigen, his best non Mob or Sho friend, but Reigen had still hurt him…in every single way one person could hurt another…but he had said sorry…so maybe Serizawa should pick up the phone and accept his apology…as long as he agreed to never, ever, ever sleep with Mob again. Serizawa couldn't really blame him, Mob was perfect. The most perfect woman to have ever existed.

Aside from the cheating.

But he could move past that for her.

He could and he would.

"Uh-huh…" said Ritsu. He was only half paying attention to Sho talk about how much Sunflower loved crepes and well scripted action dramas. He could not get Reigen Arataka out of his head. He had done something to Shigeko and Ritsu needed to know what. Shigeko, obviously, was going to try and keep this to herself. Serizawa was also, obviously, going to do whatever Shigeko told him to do.

That was fine.

Ritsu could always find out for himself what happened…and then decide what he was going to do about it.


	24. And What it wants is to be Understood

Mob did not need to be walked to work.

Ritsu wanted to walk with her, though, he said he did anyway. The walk was weirdly quiet. She expected him to start up about her coming home but he didn't. They didn't talk about much, really, but thw atmosphere felt…heavy. Heavy like there was something to be said even though Mob had no idea what more needed to be said. She loved Serizawa, he loved her, and she couldn't have come home if she wanted to. She had to take care of Serizawa, that was what it was to love someone. Ritsu should have understood that, he had to take care of Sho after all. Mob had seen him less than happy. Times when he'd cry or yell or kick things…times when he was upset. Of course his upset times weren't as bad as Serizawa's. Sho still left his house after all.

"Sister…" said Ritsu as they walked to where she worked. He wanted to walk with her mainly as an excuse to get out of that tiny apartment. There wasn't any space at all to…process….anything. No space to wrap his mind around everything that was going on. His sister was in love with Serizawa and Serizawa was in love with Shigeko….

"Yes?" asked Mob as they walked. If this was about her coming home she was running the rest of the way to work manners be damned.

"Do you…do you really love him?" asked Ritsu

"What kind of a question is that? Of course I do. I am not a child and I know when I'm in love with someone. I'm in love with Serizawa Katsuya." Said Mob, a tone in her voice that she knew not to take with her brother. She loved Ritsu, she really did, but she did not much care for the way he kept on prying into her life like this.

"I didn't mean it like that, sister. I just meant…why him?" asked Ritsu

"Because I love him, alright? I don't want to talk about it anymore. I don't ask you why you love Sho, Ritsu, I just trust that you love him. I wish that you would just trust me." Said Mob

"I do trust you sister, I just…I want to understand, I guess. I mean he's a nice guy but-" said Ritsu

"He's nice to me. He's never been anything but nice to me and he's never done anything but love me. That's why I love him, because he loves me. I don't think that I need a reason for loving him beyond the fact that I love him. Love doesn't need to have a reason, Ritsu." Said Mob

"…I know. I know that love doesn't need a reason but I just don't understand why you're with him. I mean why he would be worth…what happened." Said Ritsu

"….I said that I was sorry about that." Said Mob

"I know, and I forgive you…mostly. I just…this is a lot for me, ok? It's just a lot-" said Ritsu

"It's a lot for me too, sometimes…." Said Mob

"If it's a lot then why not come home?" asked Ritsu

"Because I can't. I can't just abandon Serizawa like that. He's just now getting back to normal…or maybe better than normal because normal for him is living in his room and never showering. I don't him to be like that because of me again." said Mob

"Again? What do you mean again? Sister, if he wants to live in his room and not shower then that's on him, not you." Said Ritsu

"It's just…I did something wrong, something bad, and Serizawa backslid a lot…but he's better now and everything's better and we're happy again and I don't want to talk about this anymore. Ok? Can't you just be happy for me? I'm happy for you and Sho. I'm happy that you have someone who loves you and who you love right back. Please just be happy for me, brother." Said Mob

"….I'll try, sister, I'll try. I just want you to be…ok." Said Ritsu as they got to his sister's place of work. They parted ways there, she had to work and he had to go home and think. Sho was back with Serizawa, they had to 'catch up' and stuff. That was good. That gave Ritsu time to think. Shigeko said that she had done something bad…but what could she have possibly done? This was Shigeko.

"Ritsu, I'm ok. You don't have to worry about me." Said Mob.

Ritsu knew that he didn't have to but he still did. He worried and he knew that he had cause to worry. Reigen. Sister had never reacted like that when he was mentioned…usually she went on and on about him…but now she was….weird.

He had done something.

Ritsu knew what he had to do. Something. He had to do something. Kill Reigen? No, he doesn't have it in him to kill anyone…plus he didn't much feel like going to prison over the sweaty jerk. Sho would never forgive if he ended up in prison anyway. He had enough people to visit in prison as it was. Ritsu was not going to kill Reigen but boy was he going to do…something.

Reigen knew that he needed to do something.

He checked his phone again. Nothing from Mob, understandable, and nothing from Serizawa either, more than understandable. After all Reigen had slept with his girlfriend and beaten him up, too. Well he was being a bit too generous there. Hit him really hard. There. That was more closely aligned to what happened. He had exploded and punched Serizawa in the face and then Serizawa had exploded and destroyed the office and then their friendship had totally imploded and now he was alone.

That was normal for him.

For the old him, the him that existed in the past. This was just like when he and Mob had went their separate ways except worse, now, because they weren't going to get back together. How could they after everything that happened. He should have just accepted the fact that he returned her feelings from the very beginning instead of trying to deny them. Run from them. Drown them in beer and liquor and self loathing.

He made his bed and now he had to lay down in it.

That was what he had been doing for a while, actually. The repairs to the office were done. He needed to get back to work. He was running out of money, dangerously low on money, and he had eaten into his savings so badly that he was borrowing money from his mother of all people. She was starting to ask him why he needed the money but he had no idea what he was supposed to tell her. 'The thing is, mom, I slept with a fifteen year old girl who I'm in love with and, now you're going to laugh, she's been dating my best friend in secret'. Yeah, that would go over like a lead balloon. He knew that he needed to climb out of bed, hose himself off, put on actual clothes, and get back to it but he just could not go back to work. Work had too many memories of Mob. Good times with Mob. That one time with Mob. That first and only time with Mob.

It's a bittersweet memory.

He feels the energy around him shift and for a moment he thinks that it's her. Of course as soon as that moment comes it passes. He knows her aura, he's been bathed in it for years, and that is not her aura. A familiar one, though, and a similar one. This one is somewhat painful, prickly even, and that is normal for only one esper that he knows.

Oh God no.

A pounding at his door. The harsh kind of pounding that usually preceded something drastic, like said door being kicked down. At least that's what happens in movies. This is, however, not a movie. This is real life and in real life people did not go around kicking down doors…unless of course they were the person who was currently trying to put their fist through Reigen's door. He wonders, quickly, upon the subject of the feasibility of hiding under is blanket for the rest of his life. It may smell weird and be covered in chip crumbs but it still feels a hell of a lot safer than venturing out and getting what was coming to him.

He should have kept his mouth shut.

"Reigen! I know you're home!" shouted Ritsu. Reigen knew that he should have felt ridiculous, he was hiding from a fourteen year old boy after all, but that fourteen year old boy out there had psychic powers and a mean streak as wide as the sky. Coupled with his protective streak…Reigen did not see him coming out of this one as relatively unharmed as he got away from his fight with Serizawa.

"Reigen! Answer the door!" shouted Ritsu. Reigen was not going to be answering that door anytime soon. He was fourteen, he had a short attention span, maybe he'd go and find someone else to beat the ever loving shit out of. Reigen had no idea how much the kid knew but even a little would be enough of a reason for him to do some grievous bodily harm.

"Open the FUCKING door!" shouted Ritsu even louder than before. Now the neighbors were most likely starting to notice and Reigen could not explain an irate teenage boy pounding on his door disturbing the entire building. He sighed and got out of bed. Time to face the music. He deserved this, anyway, for what he did. He shouldn't have tattled to Mob's mother like a little kid. Somehow that had spilled over to that kid's relationship and Reigen knew how hard those things were…and how Mob's parents could be.

Plus, also, Reigen did sleep with the kid's sister. So, yeah, that was a thing that happened.

He crossed his apartment and opened the door. He opened it slowly, very slowly, so as not to set Ritsu off. Too slowly, it seemed, because his door was suddenly thrown opened. Reigen staggered back and rubbed his head where he had been smacked by the door. That would definitely leave a mark.

"What the fuck did you do to my sister!?" said Ritsu. No. No way. There was no way in hell that he was going to let Reigen get away with whatever he did to Shigeko. Shigeko trusted him and he went and did…whatever it was that he did to her. Ritsu knew all the things that could happen to girls…and he should have kept Shigeko safe from whatever happened. He knew the measure of Reigen. He had seen the way Reigen had been with Shigeko for all of these years. He didn't even have the excuse of being totally socially stunted like Serizawa was. He wasn't even a good guy. At least Serizawa had that going for him. Reigen…he had nothing going for him. He was just the guy that took advantage of Shigeko, most likely, and now he would have to pay.

"Nothing! I didn't do anything to her!" shouted Reigen. Ok, so the kid didn't know anything for certain. Good. Now he just had to find a way to calm him down so they could talk like civilized-

He was sprawled out on the ground.

"Don't lie to me! I know you did something to her! She's never been so weird about you, she's hiding something, and I know that it's something that you did….so confess already!" said Ritsu. He knew that he had to do something and 'something' seemed to be beating the shit out of Reigen. It felt good. Beating people up always did…but he was not supposed to do this. Shigeko would be so upset with him…

But this was FOR Shigeko.

"I am not lying to you. Kid, I didn't so a damn thing to your sister, alright?!" said Reigen. He wasn't lying. He didn't do anything TO Mob. He did something with Mob…something that she wanted to do…something that he was not discussing with her little brother!

"You are such a liar." Said Ritsu picking Reigen up with his powers. Reigen tried not to show fear. He had been through worse, so much worse. Mob was a hundred times as terrifying when she exploded. This was just a teenage temper tantrum, that was what he told himself, a teenage temper tantrum.

A justified one.

Or not. Really this was none of the kid's goddamned business. Reigen hadn't done a damn thing that Mob hadn't wanted him to do. Reigen wouldn't have even done what he did if she hadn't confessed to him. If Mob had just waited a few more years…but she couldn't wait. She got impatient and made this mess. The mess that just kept on getting worse and worse…

"Yeah, ok, I'm a liar. I'm a liar and a piece of shit and I should be ashamed to even be alive. I'm a fraud, a total fraud, and I've made my living lying to people for years. I confess. Ok? I confess." Said Reigen

"That is not what this is about and you know it." Said Ritsu

"I have zero fucking clue what this is about, ok? You just showed up and started all of this shit. I haven't done a damn thing-" said Reigen. He was slammed up against a wall, now. The kid was pinning him down with a combination of psychic powers and brute strength. The back of his head throbbed. He could feel his ribs straining under the force Ritsu exerted to keep him pinned there. He tried to kick out but his feet were dangling high off the ground…

"You did something to my sister. I saw her today and when I mentioned you she got all weird. She said that she didn't want to talk about you. That's weird, you're usually all she wants to talk about….and Serizawa didn't want to talk about you either…and then a while ago sister had this weird conversation with me in the middle of the night…she asked me how I would feel if…" said Ritsu, the wheels in his head turning. They must have been improperly calibrated because the conclusion that he came to made zero sense whatsoever.

"I didn't make her do anything." Said Reigen. His feet were touching the ground, now, but he was still pinned to the wall. His chest felt like one big bruise. He could feel a goose egg forming on the back of his head. His apartment was a mess, too, or maybe it had always been a mess. He definitely remembered having his empty cup noodle cups organized by flavor…

Also Ritsu was wearing shoes in his house.

Which, somehow, felt like the most impolite part of this whole exchange. Suddenly Reigen was hit with the urge to laugh at the sheer absurdity of this. He was getting beaten up by a fourteen year old boy and he was getting pissed about shoes being worn in his house. Heh. Wasn't that just the last dollop of whipped cream on the shit Sunday that was his life?

"What the hell is so funny?" asked Ritsu. Reigen was smiling, then, just a little. Ritsu could feel his grip on Reigen slacking. Sister…sister was not capable of that. She could be manipulated, though, or tricked…yes. That was it. Sister had been tricked and now Reigen was laughing at…whatever. It didn't matter.

"You're still wearing your shoes." Said Reigen

"So?" asked Ritsu

"That's what's pissing me off about this whole thing. You've got your gym shoes on in my house. Apartment. My shithole apartment. I haven't cleaned in God only knows how long am I'm getting pissed off that you're wearing shoes indoors. Hell, you're kicking my ass and the thing with the shoes is what's really pissing me off." Said Reigen with a dry laugh

"Would you prefer it if I kicked your ass barefoot?" asked Ritsu sarcastically.

"I'd prefer it if you didn't kick my ass at all." Said Reigen

"Not an option." Said Ritsu

"Then get on with it." Said Reigen. He reached up and tried to push Ritsu's arm away but it was like trying to push a steel girder. His aura was visible, too, very visible…and also painful. This whole thing was painful. Whatever. The physical pain was a nice change of pace from the emotional pain. Since that day, that awful day when Mob confessed, he hadn't had a single good day…

"What are you, some kind of masochist? You actually want me to kick your ass?" asked Ritsu. Reverse psychology? Some kind of trick that Reigen had picked up from his many years as a conman?

"Did I stutter?" asked Reigen

"You honestly want me to beat you up? You want your ass kicked right now? What is this, some kind of reverse psychology or-" said Ritsu

"It'd certainly be a nice change of pace. Kid, I've been kicking my own ass for weeks now, it'd be nice to let someone else take over for once." Said Reigen. If Ritsu was going to do it then he had better get on with it. Reigen had a six pack in the fridge and it was getting to be that day drinking time of day.

"You-you're just trying to trick me into-" said Ritsu. He would not fall for whatever this was. He was going to do it, he really was. Even if doing…this…would piss Shigeko off. Even if he and Shigeko had just now finished fighting. Even if, for some reason, he was starting to feel guilty. Even if he could hear his sister's voice in his mind telling him over and over again that their powers were never to be used against other people. Even if Reigen was there, and he deserved it, and it would feel so fucking **good** to beat the shit out of him until he forgot his own name…

But he'd be letting Shigeko down.

But he was doing this for Shigeko.

"I'm not tricking you into doing anything. Just get on with it. Do whatever awful thing you're planning on doing to me so I can get back to doing nothing and waiting for tomorrow to happen. Come on, you're certainly strong enough. I don't even have powers. It'd be like shooting a fish in a barrel." Said Reigen. His feet completely touched the ground. The pressure on his chest was gone.

"You're lucky my sister cares so much about you and you're lucky that I care so much about her. I'm not going to kick your ass but I am going to tell you to leave-" said Ritsu

"Yeah, I get it. Don't ever do so much as breathe in her general direction. Whatever you say, kid." Said Reigen

"….don't call me that. I am not a kid." Said Ritsu. To his surprise Reigen laughed. A barking sort of laugh that lacked any and all mirth.

"You and Mob are two of a kind, you know that?" asked Reigen. Absurd, totally absurd. For a moment he thought that he was looking at a male version of Mob. Not a kid. Heh. They were both such kids…and so was he if his recent actions were anything to go by. Well they had an excuse, chronology and biology, he had no such excuse….

"Don't talk about my sister. Don't ever talk to or about my sister again. Just…stay the hell away from her…or I'll come back…and I won't give a damn how she feels." Said Ritsu. He stopped himself from doing something that he would regret. He and Shigeko were only just now ok…and if he used his powers against Reigen more so than he already had Shigeko would most certainly take issue…and then they'd be right back in a fight.

And he did not want to ever fight with his sister again.

"Sure kid, whatever you want." Said Reigen. He meant it, too. Of course he was not going to ever see Mob again…she had made her choice. She had chosen Serizawa and that was…the most painful thing that had ever happened to him.

It still hurt. Even worse than the parting gift that Ritsu left him.

Mob leaving was worse than a punch in the face.

"Seriously? With all the combo moves in this game you K.O. me by punching me in the face?" asked Sho as his character fell to the ground in the sweet release of pixelated death. That was so anticlimactic. No explosion, no spine cracking, no geyser of blood, nothing! He needed artificial release of the near photo realistic ultra-violence or he might go to physical violence…or something. He read that in a book, once, or maybe a webpage…or maybe he saw it on TV. Either way one did not end a match in Mortal Kombat by punching someone in the face. What was the point of having the potential for ultra-violence but not using it!?

"I wanted to put you out of your misery quickly." Said Serizawa as they went back to the character select screen. He missed this. Not that he didn't enjoy playing videogames with his girlfriend! He just also missed hanging out with Sho. He had been so busy since Claw fell and he started his relationship with Ritsu…and Serizawa had been busy too, except for the relationship with Ritsu part. No, his was with Mob and hadn't been going on for nearly as long but still had taken up a lot of his time.

This was nice.

"Fuck you. I'm totally going to crush you in the next round." Said Sho sticking out his tongue.

"You say that." Said Serizawa

"Because it's the truth. You'll see. You'll all see!" said Sho

"I'll just let you win since you feel so strongly." Said Serizawa with a laugh

"Nobody lets me win, I just do because I'm awesome." Said Sho

"I've let you win before." Said Serizawa

"Yeah, when I was a little kid. I'm not little anymore, I'm fourteen, and I can win on my own thank you very much. I am not a child." Said Sho

"I never said that you were a child, Sho, but if you feel so strongly about-" said Serizawa

"Hey! Don't you even think about tainting my victory! My victory must be pure or it won't count! I'm not Ritsu's big sis, you don't have to let me win." said Sho. Maybe he should not have mentioned Ritsu's big sis. At the mention of her Serizawa's eyes got kind of sad, there, and his aura reached out. For her, most likely. Sho got it. He got that way when he was away from Ritsu for too long.

"Sorry. She'll come back though, I think, so you don't have to worry. I mean I know that I worry sometimes when Ritsu and I are apart for too long, when he has to go to school and stuff, but I try to remember that he'll always come back. She'll come back too, she really likes you, I can tell." Said Sho. He forgot, sometimes, how fragile Serizawa was.

"Thanks. I know she'll come back, though, she always does. I just…miss her, I guess." Said Serizawa. That was it. The painful feeling that settled deep within his chest, the one that he tried to exorcise by playing videogames for hours on end, was just him missing her. It had nothing to do with him trusting or not trusting her. He totally trusted her, he did! She said that she would never cheat on him again and he had to trust her because otherwise he was going to spend the rest of his life completely paranoid that she was out there right now with Reigen or some other guy-

"Hey, you ok? You need your umbrella or you want me to close the blinds or something?" asked Sho

"N-No. I'm fine, really, I'm completely fine. I just…I miss her a lot." Said Serizawa. Sho narrowed his eyes and watched Serizawa's aura. He knew Serizawa, had known him for years, and he knew what it looked like when Serizawa was afraid of something. Ritsu's big sis? Why? Because she went all Akira on everyone before? That was over and she was, most likely, never going to do it again. Wait, no, if he were afraid OF her then he would have been afraid all the time. He didn't start to be afraid until she left. He hadn't even been afraid of Ritsu when it looked like Ritsu was about to kick his ass up one side of the street and down the other…

Hmm….

"I-I'm fine Sho, really. You don't have to-" said Serizawa. He knew Sho, had known him for years, and he could tell when the wheels in Sho's head were turning. They were certainly turning, then, and Serizawa did not want him digging around too deeply in that area. He did not want to explain to anyone, expecially Sho, what happened with Mob and Reigen…he just wanted to forget. To move past it. To pretend that it never happened. But it had happened. But he could pretend that it didn't…

"Something's bothering you." Said Sho simply. Well this was easy, now all he had to do was figure out what it was and then he'd fix it and then Serizawa would go back to normal. Well back to trying to be normal like other people were normal. Normal for him was following dad around and worshipping the ground he walked on.

"A-A lot of things bother me but there's really no reason for you to-" said Serizawa

"I can fix it. Come on, you're, like, my best friend next to Ritsu. Whatever it is I can totally fix it." Said Sho

"This isn't that kind of thing. Really it's fine. I'm getting over it, really, so there's nothing for you to worry about. Come on, you said that you were going to crush me in the next round-" said Serizawa. Once Sho got an idea in his head it was difficult to get him to think of anything else. That was usually a good quality of his, he had led the most successful rebellion in Claw's history after all, but it was also the sort of thing that caused him to go digging around in areas that he shouldn't have. Areas like this.

"Is it about Ritsu's big sis? Are you upset that she's not having a baby? Because she totally could! I mean, I think it takes a lot of tries. My mom never had any more kids so I think that having kids is hard. You guys should totally have a bunch of kids! I mean I didn't even think that I would like babies and little kids so much but now that you could have some I think that I would totally be the greatest uncle ever! Plus I can totally help you guys take care of the kids. Like if you had five or ten I would totally help you guys take care of them. I'd feed them and water them and groom them and make them a really nice baby cage-" said Sho

"I'm not keeping my children in cages. I don't even think that's allowed." Said Serizawa

"Not, like, animal cages. You know, baby cages! Like the bed with the bars or the thing you put them in so that they can play-" said Sho

"A crib and a playpen?" asked Serizawa

"See, you're already and expert! So, yeah, don't feel down just because you banged and-" said Sho. That must have been it. It's like when you think that you got a male and a female hamster so you can get baby hamsters but really they're just two guys who like to bang and then you're disappointed for a little bit but you're glad that your hamsters have found love.

"Sho." Said Serizawa in a tone that clearly said 'I am not discussing that part of my relationship with you'. That as another thing that he did not want to discuss with anyone else. Not that there was still a 'that' part to their relationship. She hadn't asked him to do…anything….in a while and he hadn't asked her either. It was just…he wasn't sure if he was ready to get back to that after knowing that she had done that with Reigen…and now Reigen knew what it was like with her….and she knew what it was like with Reigen and she could, and would, probably spend the entire time comparing him to Reigen who was so much better at it than him, probably, and she'd never be happy with him again and their bedroom would die permanently and he knows that their relationship is more than sex, and that he loves her so he shouldn't even be thinking about how much he's going to miss sex with her, but he still does miss sex with her even if it drags up all kinds of feelings both great and terrible and-

"What? I know you guys bang. You know I bang. I know my parents bang. I know your parents banged. People bang. I bet you that at least…twenty percent…of the people in the building are banging right now." Said Sho. People were so weird about that. Banging was one of the top five parts of being alive and being human. People should just be more open about it instead of being all 'oh no, I'm all embarrassed' or 'I did this thing that feels really good and now I'm super ashamed'. People were so weird sometimes.

"Do you have to phrase it like that? And how did you even come up with that number?" asked Serizawa with a groan. Not the word he would use…not that he wanted to be discussing this with Sho in the first place.

"It's an estimate that I totally just pulled out of thin air and, yes, I will use the word bang. It's a free country." Said Sho with a shrug.

"Well can we not discuss-" said Serizawa

"I seriously don't get it but ok. Anyway you still shouldn't feel bad just because she's not having a baby. You can always keep on trying and trying and trying until you get one…right? I mean, there's no set limit on the number of times you can try, right?" asked Sho

"…we could but I'm really not upset about that. That upset, I mean. I mean I don't know how I feel…I mean…but it's fine. I'm fine, really." Said Serizawa. He did not want to get into his feelings on that particular subject. Having a baby…the thought is terrifying. More terrifying now that he and Mob have had a scare. He can't do it. He knows that right now he cannot raise a child…even though part of him wants that with her. He wants that with her but he knows enough to recognize that them having a child is a bad idea. Mixed feelings.

That he does not want to dwell on.

"Are you sure? Because I know you and I can tell that something's bothering you and I don't like it. I mean you can feel whatever you want but you're pretty much my second best friend and I've actually been a pretty shitty friend to you latterly-" said Sho

"No! You haven't, Sho, not at all. You've been a good friend to me. I've just had a lot going on lately…a lot going on that I don't want to talk about…." Said Serizawa

"Why? Is it that bad? What happened? See, now I have to know. The curiosity is just too much to take." Said Sho. He flopped down on his back dramatically, or at least tried to. The bed was behind him and all he managed to do was bruise his spine, it felt like. Well that and he made Serizawa smile a little. That was good. Sho couldn't stand it when people were upset.

"It's really nothing that you need to know about, ok? It's just relationship stuff. You know how that is, right? I mean, I don't ask you about-" said Serizawa

"You totally could, I wouldn't get mad. I guess that we're different like that." Said Sho

"I could but I won't. That your private-" said Serizawa. He was happy that Sho had found someone, so happy for him, but Sho had habitual oversharing problem.

"Ritsu keeps on telling me that I treat him like a hamster just because I like to take care of him! I don't see what's so bad about that, I really don't. I mean I care about him and I want him to be happy. Plus we banged, too, which was like…a lot…but in a good way and I just want him to be safe and happy and I always want to be near him and when we're apart I just get so…sad. Sad and mad and kind of scared, too, and it doesn't go away unless we're together again but I am trying to give him space. That's why I didn't go with him to beat up Reigen. I mean I like Reigen so I wouldn't have helped beat him up anyway but I just…I should spend time with other people…or my actual hamsters….but I just want to spend all of my time with him and it's just…I don't want to smother him but I don't want to be alone either. There's nothing worse than being alone…" Said Sho

"There isn't…there really isn't…." said Serizawa. Being alone, truly alone, was the worst. He never wanted to go back to that time. He had Mob, now, so he never did…but the thought of her leaving…it hurts. It must have hurt even more for Sho, feeling like that, because he was so much younger and he always prided himself on being able to take care of himself and not need anybody.

"But I feel like if I don't stop treating him like I do then…then he'll go but if I leave him alone and I stop trying to take care of him then…then I'll feel alone and it's such a bad feeling…" said Sho

"It is. It is but…but that's just how love is. You always want to be with the person you love and you always want to take care of them…" said Serizawa. He wanted to take care of Mob in any way he could and Mob had already taken care of him...that was what love was.

"But he won't let me. I don't get him sometimes…I really don't. Like how he doesn't like you just because you're banging, sorry, going out with, his sister. He's so paranoid that some guy is just going to take advantage of her or something and he's all 'I'm her brother and I'm supposed to protect her' even though I keep on telling him that you're not like that. Actually I think he likes you now. He didn't try and beat you up so that's progress. He was totally ready to beat you up, too, but don't worry I would have stopped him…maybe I should have gone with him to Reigen's, actually…" said Sho. Sho was only half sure that Ritsu had it in him to just start beating the shit out of someone. He wouldn't actually…Reigen was a nice guy. He was funny and nice and smart about some stuff and actually kind of cute…not that Sho would ever admit to that last part…and even if he wasn't he didn't deserve to get beaten up.

"…he's going to beat Reigen up? For real?" asked Serizawa

"Well he didn't say anything but I could tell. I mean something's up with Reigen, it's obvious by how weird you guys were. I know he's a good guy and he wouldn't do anything that Ritsu's thinking like try and sleep with Ritsu's big sis or anything like that….right? I mean, neither of you guys are at work but we just figured that it was because the office was being renovated. Or at least it was all the times that we were there. Reigen's sad drinking again so something might be up. Well he was sad drinking the last time me and Ritsu stalked him. Ritsu really likes stalking him…not that I think anything's going on or anything. Ritsu would never do that to me." Said Sho

"….would he really hurt Reigen?" asked Serizawa. He was still mad and he would be for a while. Mad and hurt. Mad and hurt and betrayed and a whole lot of other negative feelings….but he still did not want anything bad to happen to Reigen. Reigen hadn't known…or at least he said that he hadn't know that Mob wasn't single so…and Mob was perfect so of course he couldn't say no…but it still hurt.

But he didn't want Reigen to get beat up…more than he already had….

"Probably not. He can get kind of mean sometimes, and weird when it comes to his sister, but she's friends with Reigen and he probably won't want to piss her off." Said Sho. Serizawa believed Sho, he did, but he also had to…he called his phone over with his powers.

He just wanted to make sure that Reigen was ok.

So he went into his messages and found Reigen. There, in plain text, was the last message they exchanged, a simple 'I'm sorry' from Reigen. He was sorry, maybe, because he had said so. Was that enough? Serizawa didn't know….but he did know that he was sorry too. Sorry for exploding. Sorry for not making sure that Reigen knew that Mob was his girlfriend. Just…sorry.

So that was what he said.

Then he asked if Reigen was alright.

Then he and Sho went back to videogames. Sho won a few times and accused Serizawa of letting him win. Serizawa denied it up and down. He really wasn't letting Sho win, his mind was just elsewhere. Reigen…they were both sorry. They were both hurt and they were both sorry and even though Reigen had done something that should have been unforgivable….Serizawa was still willing to forgive him provided that it never happen again.

He missed his best friend.

And he kind of missed the way things were. Normal. He didn't know if there was any way at all for things to get back to normal but if there was…or as normal as things could be given what happened…but if there was then he was all for it. He needed a job and he needed friends if he was ever going to rejoin society. Sho was a good friend and all but for some reason he just found himself missing the easy comradery that he and Reigen had…before all of this…

His phone vibrated. He clicked it on, quickly, and his face almost fell when he saw that it wasn't Reigen. Not that he wasn't happy. He was always happy to hear from Mob. She never texted while she was at work, especially not when she worked at Family Mart because there was a lot to do there, she said, a lot more than working at the flower shop. This was so nice, though, even if she was just asking him something mundane like if she needed to bring home dinner…

Oh. It was about dinner.

Her mother was coming to dinner.

Ok then. He could do this. He had this. This was…he had been wanting to meet her parents for a while now but that was before…all of this. Before she ran away from home to be with him. Her parents weren't like his mom. They would not look past the age thing. They hadn't been able to look past the limits of chronology and see that he loved Mob and Mob loved him and that was all that really mattered, the love they shared. His parents did not like her but…but her mother wanted to come over that evening for dinner. He thought of his own mother. The thought of her coming over for dinner makes him so happy…but Mob's mother is nothing like his mother…

He had this.

He made himself stay as calm as possible. This was a good thing. Maybe her parents were coming around. Maybe they were going to give him a chance instead of passing judgement before they even got to know him. The age thing didn't matter. The love that they shared, that was what mattered. Yes. He'd just show her mother that he loved Mob and that he would take care of her and be there for her no matter what.

He had this.

Kageyama Hana did not have this.

Family Mart.

This was a Family Mart. Her daughter worked at Family Mart. This was supposed to be simple, just go in and talk to her. But she couldn't. Hana couldn't. She couldn't will her feet to move, to carry her past the automatic doors and into the cool oasis of junk food, magazines, and soft drinks. This made no sense. She had been going into Family Marts for her entire life.

Shigeko worked at this one.

Her daughter. Her only daughter. The daughter that she had totally lost control of was in there. Hana couldn't see her. She could feel her, sort of, the energy that she carried with her. Hana stared through the large glass doors. Two men in there, but no Shigeko. She watched those men and wondered….wondered things that she did not want to wonder.

A grown man. Her daughter was dating a grown man.

She did not know where she had gone wrong. A grown man. What sort of grown man would date a fifteen year old girl? Besides for the sex, which she knew that her daughter was having. Shigeko said that the man she was seeing wanted to have a life with her. Marriage, a home, and a family. That was worse, a thousand times worse, than just using a naïve girl for sex. Unless Shigeko was just being used but believed all the lies that she was told….which was also so very bad…

Ritsu said that she was fine.

She had ungrounded Ritsu because she could not stand to see him upset. He had been carrying on like a ghost and she could not have it. Besides, there was no point in punishing him anyway. Shigeko asked him to lie for her and he was too young to see why it was wrong to hide something like that from his parents…and he had been hiding his own secret…

Hana did not care about that.

There was a lot more going on, now, than what Ritsu had been hiding from her. Even though he had nothing to hide, really. Times were different now than when she was his age. The world was becoming a more open minded place. The times were changing and she had to change with them or get left behind so she had might as well accept this about her only son.

She accepted it.

Her son dating another boy was the least of her worries. Besides, it could have just been a phase. He was at that age after all. Also she didn't have to worry about either of them getting pregnant or anything like that. Sons were so much easier to raise than daughters. Shigeko…at some point she had lost complete control over her own daughter…and she had no idea how to get it back.

She took a step forwards. Then she steps backwards. Then she just keeps on standing there.

Hana wants to turn around. She wants to turn on her heels and just…leave….but she cannot leave her daughter. She cannot leave her daughter. Shigeko is not an adult no matter what she said. She was only fifteen and she could not just leave home to live with her boyfriend…her thirty one year old boyfriend. Ritsu said that he was a nice man. They all had breakfast together and then played videogames until it was time for Shigeko to go to work…at this Family Mart. She must have quite her exorcism job…not that Hana could blame her. Her boss had been the one to blow the whistle on what, exactly, had been going on under her nose…

Such a nice man.

He only had Shigeko's best interests at heart, that man, and Hana would forever be grateful for what he had done. Hana had no idea how Shigeko could have been so…she did not even have the words to describe any of this. But she had to find the words and she had to use them calmly. No more yelling. The yelling had been what pushed Shigeko right out the door and into the arms of that man. No. Hana would have to approach this diplomatically…

She took another step forward. Then she stepped back. Then she stood there.

She just needed to gather some more courage, that was all. She just needed to strengthen her resolve, walk right through those doors, and just…talk to Shigeko. Sit down with her and just talk. Figure out what it was about this man that was so appealing. Was it him or did Shigeko just…like older men? That would make sense. She never once said a word about any of the boys in her classes. Some people liked younger people, some people liked older people, and that was fine. Shigeko could date all the older men she wanted…when she was a grown woman.

She was only fifteen.

She was only fifteen and she was not beyond her mother's command. Not that Hana was planning on doing much commanding. Even though she was totally within her right to command Shigeko to get her butt back home and up to her room where she could be grounded to until it was time to go off to university! No phone, no computer, no videogames, no television, no-

Calm down.

That was what sent her out the door in the first place. She needed to just try and talk to her daughter. Reason with her. Yes. That was all she had to do. Just walk through the automatic doors, ask for Kageyama Shigeko, and then talk to her. Yes. The whole thing would be easy. There was nothing to it. She just had to put one foot in front of the other and walk. Yes. Any moment now. No time like the present. Time to get this show on the road. Rolling stone gathered no dust. Go time. Any moment now she would just-

"We're open! You can come in!" called out a man from the automatic doors. Hana took a step back. Facial piercings, a Mohawk…ick.

"Whenever you're ready! We never close!" said the man

"Um…yes. Thank you! I'll…take that under consideration!" said Hana. The man went back inside. For a moment Hana thinks that it might be the man that Shigeko is seeing but…no…Shigeko would never go for a man like that…right?

Right?

"She knows that she's allowed inside, right?" asked Sakurai as Koyama came back through the doors. Koyama shrugged.

"She said that she's going to 'take it under consideration' or whatever that means." Said Koyama with a shrug.

"She's still staring…she's just out there staring…" said Sakurai. Not an esper. No aura to speak of. She looked familiar though…but he could not place her. Not a regular, though, not at all….just somewhat familiar….

"Who's staring?" asked Mob as she came up to the counter. This was harder work than the flower shop but she didn't mind. She got to leave the house, she made two new friends there, and she got an employee discount, too. It was worth it even if she did have to spend a lot of time making sure that everything was facing the right way and the right distance apart.

"President Kageyama!" said Koyama practically jumping ten feet in the air. Sakurai laughed from behind his hand. Honestly.

"Sorry to sneak up on you, I just wanted to know what everyone was talking about. Also I finished fixing the soft drinks. Also you don't have to call me President Kageyama, I'm not the president of anything. I'm just Mob…or Shigeko…or Kageyama." Said Mob

"R-Right. Sorry!" said Koyama. She may have looked sweet and innocent but looks could be deceiving. Sure she had stopped Suzuki and saved the world but, well, she stopped Suzuki and saved the world. She had the power to stop the President…and she was just a kid! Who knew what she had planned? She could have just been waiting for her moment to strike!

"Don't apologize, he's just being ridiculous. We're watching this woman that's been standing out there for almost twenty minutes. Honestly it's a little worrying. Oh, and here. Sit, don't strain yourself." Said Sakurai as he motioned towards some boxes that needed unpacking. He did not share Koyama's fears of the new President. She was a teenage girl. Obviously she just wanted friends and stickers and candy and boyfriends. Not harem members, and he would have said no anyway if she was, being only fifteen and all. This was just a sweet little girl, nothing to worry about at all, plus she was a good stocker, too. Losing her to maternity leave was going to be a damn shame.

"I'm fine, I can stand." Said Mob. She wasn't tired at all. She didn't know why everyone treated her like she was so fragile here. She was not fragile at all! Besides, she had done much more strenuous work in the Body Improvement Club anyway.

"No, really, you shouldn't strain yourself in your condition, President." Said Sakurai

"I'm not the Preside-" said Mob

"Do you need anything? Water? Food? A nice long break?" asked Sakurai. Best to stay on her good side even if she wasn't anything like Suzuki. She was still a teenage girl and could be moody…and she was pregnant, too, which could add to moodiness…

"No, I'm fine. Who's out there…oh." Said Mob as she craned around Koyama and looked out the automatic doors. The shelf of snacks next to her collapsed. Great. Now not only did she have to see her mom but she also had a mess to clean up. Wonderful.

"My mom." Said Mob before people could ask. She walked past Koyama and stood in front of the doors. She made eye contact with mom. Mom was just…what was mom doing there? There was a Family Mart by the house that she could have gone to…or the Smile Mart…or the real grocery store…what was she doing at this one?

Right. Ritsu knew where she worked.

He must have told mom and now mom had come all the way down to where Mob worked to give her an earful and probably try and drag her back home. Well then. Whatever. Mob was never, ever, ever going back home. She couldn't. If she left Serizawa then he would die without her!...or just never leave his room again.

Mom was walking towards her now. Mob took a step back and let the automatic doors do their thing. Behind her Koyama and Sakurai pretended to be busy. Not that she knew that they were pretending, of course, all she could focus on then was her mother. There. At her place of work. Her mother who was walking forward now…

Mob took a step back.

The automatic doors opened. Mom was there. Mob waited for the yelling to start up again. She didn't much feel like being yelled at while she was at work…or ever…but that was mom and mom loved to yell. That was just what moms did. Well not Mob. When she and Serizawa had a baby she would not yell at it ever no matter what it did.

"Shigeko." Said Hana. That was her daughter, there, in a Family Mart uniform. The men behind her were working very hard at looking like they were working hard. Shigeko was just standing there staring. Always with the staring…

"Hi mom." Said Mob after a moment. Well that was…unexpected. No yelling? Who was this woman and what had she done with Mob's mother?

"Shigeko, I want to talk." Said Hana. She needed to be diplomatic about this even though she wanted to start screaming at the top of her lungs. Yelling was only going to push Shigeko away further, so far away that she would end up pregnant at fifteen and working at the Family Mart for the rest of her life. No. Hana did not want that sort of life for her only daughter. Her eyes went to Shigeko's midsection even though she knew fully well that it was too early to tell anything. Besides, Shigeko was taking medicine to prevent such occurrences.

"Ok. About what?" asked Mob. She knew what her mom wanted to talk about, or at least she thought that she did. Mob didn't have telepathy even though she was a long time Telepathy Club member. She could only guess at what mom wanted to talk about.

"'You know what. Shigeko…I don't want to yell at you anymore." Said Hana

"I don't want to be yelled at anymore." Said Mob

"Good…we can at least agree on that. No more yelling….yes, I can do that. I'm not going to shout at you or punish you or…command you to come home…" said Hana

"I don't want to come home anyway." Said Mob. She couldn't, but she also didn't want to. Home was…she loved her family but she was an adult now and she was doing what adults did…

"Shigeko…can we talk? I mean about…everything. I want to talk about what happened…in private." Said Hana

"I'm at work now." Said Mob. She was at work and she had to keep on working because that was how work, well, worked. That was what she meant by that but it seemed like Mom might have been taking her own meaning from it because she out on a face like she was sucking on a lemon.

"When is your shift over?" asked Hana. No. Shigeko was not getting out of this talk so easily. They were going to hash this out one way or another.

"Soon, I think. I mean I like to stay later to make more money but I can go home in a couple of hours. I don't usually work a full shift because I'm so young but nobody says anything. I'm not doing anything after this, I'm just going to pick up some food and bring it home-" said Mob

"To where you're staying now?" asked Hana. She flinched when Shigeko said 'home'. She had a home and it was with her family, not the man she was seeing.

"Yes. Serizawa's house." Said Mob. Well it was an apartment but she was not going to correct herself. Mom made her 'sucking on a lemon' face again so she decided against going on about the differences between houses and apartments.

"You…you're picking up dinner?" asked Hana

"I guess. It's more like late lunch, really. We usually eat three or four meals but they don't always match up with meal times and-" said Mob

"I want to join you for dinner." Said Hana without a thought. No more thinking. Thinking lead to overthinking. She needed to…Shigeko wanted to be seen as an adult even though she was most certainly not. Well then Hana could throw her a bone and meet with her seemingly as equals.

She also wanted to meet this man.

The man that had stolen her daughter's heart. She needed to meet this man, to see him, to know him…and to slap him in the face for daring to even begin to think of doing any of this with her daughter, her only daughter….her FIFTEEN YEAR OLD daughter….

Stay calm.

"Um….ok mom….sure….that's fine…"said Mob. That was not fine, not fine at all, but mom was being nice and…and maybe this was a good thing. Yes. She was finally seeing Mob as the adult that she was. Yes. This would go very well and mom would get to know Serizawa and then she'd be ok with their relationship and everything would be alright. Yes, this was actually a good thing. A very good thing. She was going to have a proper adult dinner with her mother like a proper adult would…this was a good thing.

It really was.


	25. And Also Dinner

Serizawa was very tired of getting slapped in the face.

But for Mob he would endure it. He would endure every single slap that her mother saw fit to give him.

"Mom! Stop it!" said Mob. She wanted to make her mother stop but that counted as using her powers against another person. She didn't even have the best control over them if the way that the room was rattling was anything to go off of.

"I will not! How dare you! How dare you touch my daughter!" said Hana as she slapped the man again and again and again. Her hand was starting to hurt, really, and not just with the force of her blows. There was that same sort of static electricity feeling that Shigeko carried with her. He was like Shigeko. He had powers.

She still hit him.

Because what else could she do?

"Mom! It's not nice to hit people! Stop it!" said Mob as she reached over and tugged on her mother's arm.

"My!" slap "Fifteen!" slap "Year!" slap "Old!" slap "Daughter!" said Hana delivering many slaps in quick succession until she simply could not anymore. Her hand hurt. The room was rattling. One of the neighbors was banging on the wall. A timer was going off.

She breathed heavily. Shigeko was holding her back. She looked over at her daughter. Her hair was floating in that way that preceded an explosion….the man didn't look much better. He had his arms up over his face, now, and his eyes were closed. Hana reached out, pulling herself out of her daughter's grasp, and was about to slap he man again when she felt…an invisible wall…

"Oh…sorry….not the face!" said Serizawa as he dropped the barrier he instinctively put up. He did not want to be hit but he also did not want to lose control. He had lost control when Reigen hit him…but it had felt much worse when Reigen hit him. He didn't much care for being slapped by his girlfriend's mother but this was a lot easier to deal with, her not being his best friends and all…though it did hurt…

He opened his eyes when no blows came.

"Ok…if you want to hit me in the face you can…but could you take off your ring? It's incredibly painful." Said Serizawa trying to sound as amicable as possible. This was the mother of the love of his life, he had to be nice, even though she had been beating him up earlier.

He didn't know why.

Well he did, the age thing, it always came down to the age thing. He didn't get why it was such a big deal. So he was over twice her age, it wasn't like he was making her do anything she didn't want to do, and it wasn't like he was or would ever do anything to hurt her.

He'd die first.

"….what?" asked Hana. She expected…she hadn't know what to expect. Not that. Not him pretty much telling her that she could hit him. She hadn't set out to hit him, no, she had only set out to tell him off and to get her daughter to come home. The hitting had been instinctive as soon as she walked through the threshold of this apartment and saw him there…and he had the audacity to say that it was 'nice to meet her'.

So she slapped him in the face.

"He wants you to stop hitting him with your ring, mom. I just want you to stop hitting him all together. You can hit me if you want but not Serizawa." said Mob

"I have never once hit you in my life." Said Hana through gritted teeth. Maybe she should have spanked Shigeko…no, that would have been suicide….this was suicide….but this was something that had to be done. She was Shigeko's mother and it was her God given right to slap the shit out of grown men who were sleeping with her daughter.

"You can start now if you want to." Said Mob

"No! Don't! You can hit me with your ring on for as long as you want to! Just don't hit her!" said Serizawa. Nope. No way. He was not letting that happen to her. It was bad enough that he hadn't been there for Sho back when….but he was there for her.

"If you insist!" said Hana before she got right back at it, this time making sure to use her wedding ring. She turned her wrist so that the stone, a sensibly sized zirconia, hit him on whatever exposed skin she could find.

"Mom!" said Mob. She shook. The room shook. In the kitchen something clattered to the floor. Dinner, probably, was ruined on top of everything that was happening. She was sick and tired of fighting. She was sick and tired of making people fight. She had fought with Master Reigen and Ritsu, she had made Serizawa and Master Reigen fight, she had made mom and dad fight, and now she had made mom and Serizawa fight too…

She was sick of this.

So she put up a barrier between them.

She hoped that this didn't count as using her powers against another person. She hoped that she wasn't breaking any rules. She didn't want to do anything wrong…and she hadn't. Well she had, the whole cheating thing and all, but that was not what mom was mad about. If she knew then she would have been out there slapping Master Reigen around….not that Mob wanted that, either. She didn't much want anyone to get slapped.

"What…what the hell makes you think that you can….my daughter!? My fifteen year old-" said Hana. Japanese was a rich and complicated language that she was having trouble remembering at that moment. There were a lot of things she wanted to say, most of them profane, but as soon as a word entered her mind it left. There was just so much to say…so many ways to convey just how wrong this whole thing was….

"I love her!" said Serizawa as he uncovered his face. He wondered how he must have looked, then, after getting hit so many times. He was hurt, not just physically, but for Mob he would endure this. He had endured much worse for her in the past. This was nothing compared to the pain she had put him through before. It was like they said, love hurt. He hadn't been prepared for just how much it could hurt…but this was what love was. When you loved someone, truly loved them, then you endured anything for them.

"What did you just say to me?" asked Hana as she tried to push through the invisible wall that held her in place. No. He did not get to say that. A man almost her age did not get to say that.

"I love her. I love her more than anything and anyone else in the world….that's why I'm with her. I love her so much and…and I want us to be able to get along, Mrs. Kageyama, because-" said Serizawa. Why weren't more mothers like his? Mom had been upset initially but now she was very much onboard. She wanted to meet Mob and spend time with her and all sorts of things. She wanted them to come for a visit at some point so she could meet Mob in person. She even offered them the use of his old bedroom if they wanted to move in with her.

His mom was so nice.

But her mom was not.

Because of the age thing.

"No. How am I supposed to get along with the man who is FUCKING-" said Hana

"Mom!? That's not…we haven't in a while...not your business…you can't SAY that!" said Mob. Ick. No. Mom was not allowed to talk about that. Mom was not allowed to use that word and she was not allowed to talk about, even think about, the things that she and Serizawa had done together. That was private, the most private, and her mother was not allowed to know about it. Nobody was allowed to know about it!

"That's…not the word I would use…" said Serizawa trying to get his bearings. He was not good at confrontation, he loathed it actually, and he was especially not good at being confronted about…personal things like that. His own mother hadn't even used that word! She had asked if he and Mob had been intimate which, while intrusive, was a nicer and less…base….way of putting what the two of them did into words.

Making love fit better but not totally.

There weren't words for it, what it felt like to become one with Mob. To have her under him, on top of him, around him. To know that she was sharing herself with him and he was sharing himself with her. To feel literally everything in that one thing, that amazing thing, that they shared together because they loved each other…

That they hadn't shared in a while.

But her mother did not need to know specifics.

"Well then what would you call it when you take advantage of a naïve little girl-" said Hana

"I am not little and I am not naïve, mom." Said Mob. She was an adult. She did all the things that adults did. She worked, she went to school, she lived on her own, and she had even saved the whole world! Plus she could even have a baby if she wanted to! She was not a child in any sense of the word!

"I-I would never do anything to hurt her or-or take advantage of her. I love her. I love her so much and all I want to do is…is to make her happy. That's all. I know that it's the age thing, that's what's got you so mad at me-" said Serizawa

"Oh? You really think so?" asked Hana with a snort. Loved Shigeko? He thought that he loved Shigeko? Hana knew what he loved about Shigeko, it was what any grown man would love about a naïve teenage girl, and Hana was no kind of mother if she didn't do something about this. What that thing would be she did not know but she knew that she had to do…something….

"Yes. I mean, I know that I'm sixteen years older than she is and it doesn't look good-" said Serizawa. He knew that looks he got from people when they were out together. He knew how it looked, him being so much older, and her being so much younger….but he would never do anything to hurt her. She was the love of his life. She was his reason and his life. Without her he wouldn't have the drive to do…much of anything…

That wasn't healthy though, was it?

"Doesn't look good….? DOES NOT LOOK GOOD!? Yeah, it doesn't look good. You don't love her and she does not love you! She's only FIFTEEN YEARS OLD!" said Hana kicking the invisible wall that separated her from the man that she wanted nothing more than to murder with her bare hands.

"I love him! I love him and he loves me and if-if-if you keep on talking like that then…then you can go home." Said Mob. That was mean. She should not have been talking to her mother like that. She should have been nice. She should have been a nice person and a good daughter but…but she was not a child anymore. She was a grown woman, now, and she was…she was being insulted in her own home.

Sometimes you had to be hard on people.

"No! I mean your mother can stay…I made everyone dinner and…and I understand why she's so upset…my mother was upset for a little bit, too, but she understands and maybe your mother just needs time…sometimes people need time…" said Serizawa trying his best to see her mother's point of view. Mob had a point, her mom was being very mean there, but Serizawa wasn't about to go kicking his future mother in law out of their house. That was a terrible way to make a first impression. He needed her parents to like him. Especially since he was planning on spending the rest of his life with her. Their children deserved to know their grandparents, too.

"….your mother is ok with this? What in the ever loving…what?" asked Hana. She could not begin to understand what was wrong with that man's mother. She had raised…Hana looked around the room….a man child. She had raised a man child. The sort of man who played videogames and built plastic robots and dated teenage girls.

She thanked the good Lord above that Ritsu came out so normal. Well aside from the phase he was going through with his little red haired friend…

"His mom likes me." Said Mob. Mom wasn't yelling and she didn't look like she was about to hit anyone else…so she dropped her barrier. She didn't like that, treating her mother like that, and being mean to her mother too. Mob didn't get it. Mom said that she only had to obey her when she lived under her roof. Mob had her own roof, now, so what did mom care what she did? She was a grown woman now and she could do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted. It wasn't like she was hurting anyone…any more than she had…and it wasn't like she was committing a crime or anything! The age of consent was fourteen and she was fifteen so this was all legal. The law said that she was old enough to be Serizawa's girlfriend, why was her mom arguing with the law?

"Y-You've met his mother?" asked Hana

"Over the phone, not in person. She likes me a lot…" said Mob

"Shigeko….Shigeko I have no idea what I'm supposed to do right now. You're my daughter and I love you…" said Hana

"I love you too, mom, and I'm sorry that I was mean to you, before, but…but I don't like this. I don't like how you and Serizawa ae fighting. I don't like how you don't get along and I just….I don't like how you keep on treating me like a child. I'm not a child. I have a job, two jobs, and I live here…you said that if I didn't want to live under your rules then I couldn't live under your roof!" said Mob

"I didn't mean run away from home! I didn't mean…I didn't mean run away from home to be with this….this-" said Hana motioning towards Serizawa. He felt hurt, again, because he knew that an insult was coming…one that he did not deserve. He wasn't doing anything wrong. He would never hurt Mob. He would always be there for her no matter what…and there had been a lot of 'what' lately.

Not that he would tell her mother what happened there.

"His name is Serizawa Katsuya and I love him. He's my boyfriend. Sometimes he can smother me a little and treat me like I'm made of glass and sometimes he can be kind of distant…but those times are over. He loves me and I love him. I love the way he's always nice to me and there for me no matter what happens. I love the way we can just be together…watching TV and playing videogames…and I like the way we go for walks and we go to the arcade…and I like the way he's never lied to me…mom I love him so much and he loves me and I just…I don't want anyone to fight. I want you to get along with him." said Mob. She had to catch her breath afterwards. She hadn't planned on saying just so much but it all just sort of…came out. It all just came out like word vomit and she had no way to stop it.

"Mob…" said Serizawa. That chased away any bad feelings that he had. She loved him. That chased away not just the bad feelings from her mother hitting him but also the bad feelings from, well, what had happened…before. What she had done…he felt better. She loved him and…and that was good.

"Shigeko…" said Hana. That was….that was not good. That man…Shigeko honestly loved that man…and he had said that he loved Shigeko. Her eyes went downwards. She saw…he was holding her hand. He was tracing his thumb over the top of her hand and looking at her like…like he loved her…

She needed to sit down.

So she did.

Things went a little more smoothly after that. Hana said that she felt faint and she was led across the room to a small table. The table had to be small to fit the apartment. The entire apartment was one room plus a bathroom. The kitchen was small, a two burner stove and a small refrigerator with two little counters, one of which was taken up by a dented rice cooker. The walls were small and cramped, crammed with all sorts of plastic models. The television was small, too, and was made even smaller by the sheer number of wires going into it. So many games consoles…

No wonder this man got on so well with Shigeko.

"Would you like some more tea, Mrs. Kageyama?" asked Serizawa from the kitchen. He had to get more instant rice going, the rice cooker had fallen during the fight, but aside from that dinner was ready. Curry, because he was good at that. Well Sho said that he was good at that. Sho also said that Mob's mother made a lot of curry. Sho knew a lot about Mob's mother, she was Ritsu's mother too so that was how he knew her, and Serizawa wished that Sho had warned him about the slapping too…

But it was over now.

"N-No, I'm fine. Thank you." Said Hana. Shigeko sat across from her at the table. Her back was to the bed…the double bed…the only bed in the room….

Hana wished that she could melt into the floor and die.

"You sure mom? We have plenty, I just went to the store." Said Mob. Mom seemed better, now, which was a good thing. Mob didn't know how she would be able to deal with any more fighting…

"You went to the store?" asked Hana. Shigeko at the store? And she came back with something besides milk and candy?

"Yes. I like to go to the store, the real store, after work. Work at the flower shop, I mean, not work at convenience store. I get us dinner from there a lot of the time, the one you saw me working at." Said Mob as she swirled the tea in her glass around with her powers. She couldn't place her mom's expression, which was normal actually, but not good. Another fight could have started at any time…

"What about your…other job. With Reigen?" asked Hana. Did Shigeko know that it was Reigen that told her what was happening? What did Shigeko think was going to happen? That this would all remain a secret? Hana was very grateful for that man, that nice man, who had only been thinking of Shigeko's best interests. She took back all of the suspicious thoughts that she had ever had about him. Clearly he was the only trustworthy adult in her daughter's life….

"….I don't work there anymore, mom." Said Mob softly. She did not want to talk about that with her mother. She did not want to talk about that end of discussion.

"A-Are you sure you don't want any more tea? Water? Soda? Milk? Anything at all?" asked Serizawa from the kitchen. He tried to keep it together but he could not stop the kitchen from rattling. Or maybe that was Mob. He saw her aura. She didn't want to get into this any less than he did.

"….I'm fine, really." Said Hana. Ah, so they did know. Well what did they expect? Obviously this was not the kind of thing that a decent person could keep to themselves!

"How's home?" asked Mob quickly. She needed to change the subject, fast, for the good of everyone involved.

"Home is fine. Your father is doing well aside from…all of this. Ritsu is also doing well. He's still…going through his phase I suppose….it doesn't matter. Sho is a very…nice…boy. How have you…been?" Said Hana. She did not want to get into that. She was not about to listen to Shigeko try and use her brother's…relationship…to try and justify what she was doing with this man. It was in no way, shape, or form the same! Sho may have been another boy, and he may have acted like he had been raised by wolves, but he was still the same age, a little younger actually, than Ritsu.

"Here is…good. We've been…good. Things have been good." Said Mob not exactly lying. Things had been much better since he stopped living in the dark and not bathing. She was a lot happier, especially since she was not pregnant. She still wasn't sure why she hadn't had her period but she was not pregnant, the test said so, and she wasn't throwing up or eating strange things or anything like they had talked about at school. She just hadn't had her period in a while and…and maybe her breasts were a little sore when she thought about it…and maybe she was maybe getting a little fatter…maybe…or maybe the internet was just making her crazy. Maybe it was like the time she and Ritsu Googled their symptoms and thought that they had either caner or malaria.

"That…that's good…I'm glad that things are good between you and…may I call you Katsuya?" said Hana. Small talk. She had reduced to having small talk with her daughter. She wanted to command Shigeko to pack her bags and come back home…but that was not going to happen. Shigeko was so stubborn sometimes…and she was in love…and that man was in love with her…

"What? Um…sure…" said Serizawa once he realized that he was being addressed. That was good, right? The use of his given name? That meant that she was maybe warming up to him…right?

"I'm glad that you and Katsuya are doing well. So, what do you do?" Said Hana. She could not command, she could not yell, and she could not hit…she had to maybe go about this diplomatically. This man was…not as bad as she had imagined. Shigeko wouldn't be the sort of person who would be under anyone's command, she had made that abundantly clear, and there was no way that anyone could make her do anything that she didn't want to do…

"I…I actually don't have a job right now…but I am going back to school! And we don't have to worry about money, I have some saved up." Said Serizawa. Right. She was obviously trying to like her. She wouldn't be happy, though, to know that he barely had any education and no income. He knew how families were about their daughters. They didn't want their daughters to be with men who could not take care of them.

"….so you have no plans to get a job?" asked Hana. Well he just lost several points in her book…and he was already in the red to begin with. Shigeko was serious about attaching herself to this man…and he didn't even have a job! Of all the things!

"I-I don't have any definite plans right now….I'm mostly just living off of my savings…" said Serizawa

"Mom, please be nice." Said Mob. What did it matter if he had a job or not? He said that he had enough money for them to live on for the time being and she had her own jobs and she helped out! She was not a child, she could help out.

"I'm being realistic. I am trying very, very, very hard to see what you see in this man. Shigeko…you have feelings for him, I understand that, but I am trying to figure out what he has to offer you-" said Hana

"Love. He offers me love. He's done a lot for me already, mom, and he loves me. If Serizawa says that we have enough money then we have enough money. I make money too, mom, and I help out." Said Mob. What more did she need? Didn't the song go 'all you need is love?' well then love was all that she needed. She saw the value in it, now, the love that he gave her. She hadn't seen it before, when they started this, but she saw it now. She knew how it felt when that love was not reciprocated…and he reciprocated the love that she gave him. She needed him to love her. She needed someone to love her. Master Reigen didn't…she didn't want to think about that so she didn't.

"Shigeko, you cannot live on love." Said Hana. Shigeko was such a child still. She could go on and on about how she was an adult until her face turned blue but she was still only fifteen. She saw this man for the love that he gave her and not the things that he could not. Shigeko, for all of her troubles, could do so much better than an overgrown man child.

"We also need food and water and air but love is important, too, mom." Said Mob. Why didn't mom get it? She married dad because she loved him, right? Not just because he had a good job? Right?

"You also need money, Shigeko. You need to be taken care of." Said Hana

"Serizawa and I take care of each other." Said Mob

"You don't even call him by his given name, Shigeko, and he doesn't call you by yours." Said Hana

"I do…sometimes…but he likes to be called Serizawa and I like to be called Mob. I'm fifteen, mom, I know what I want to be called." Said Mob

"I am not getting into that with you again….Shigeko." said Hana. That awful little nickname….oh how she wished they were back to the worst fight that they ever had was over that awful little nickname. Now Shigeko was older and she was not coming home with terrible little nicknames but instead with grown men who she professed to love…teenagers. Why did she have to have a teenager?! What had she done to deserve this?!

"I don't mind…" said Serizawa. He thought, then, that mentioning her age might not have been the best course of action. He didn't know her mother, just that she hit really hard, but he felt like maybe she would not want to be reminded of how old…or rather young….her daughter was…

"I know you don't…." muttered Hana. He was a nice man…which was an irrational thought to have. He was a nice man and he seemed to be treating Shigeko well. She had pictured…she hadn't pictured a man as nice as him. He had let himself be hit and was in the kitchen making them dinner. He cared, honestly, for Shigeko…which made this entire situation worse. If he had just been using her for sex it would have been an easy thing to get Shigeko away from him but this….this ghastly little game of 'house' they had going on….but now…

Things were different.

But at least the curry was good.

She was breaking bread, metaphorically, with the man who was sleeping with her fifteen year old daughter. Her own family was going hungry, or more likely eating takeout, while she was here. She was sitting at her daughter's table and sharing a meal with her….boyfriend. Hana had always looked forward to this day….she just assumed that it would have come some time in Shigeko's adult years. This was far too early…

She wanted to slap him again.

But that was alienating Shigeko from her.

"What do you do, Mrs. Kageyama?" asked Serizawa because, well, it had been too quiet. This was a lot, a lot of a lot, and he wanted nothing more than to close his blinds and hide under his covers, but he could not. He had to be strong. He had to be strong for Mob. This was her mother and he had to make a good impression. She already didn't like the fact that he was an adult and that he didn't have a job. He was not going to give her any more reason to dislike him…

"Me? I'm an accountant at a mid-sized firm. What about you? What did you do before…this?" asked Hana trying to dig for some information on this man. Judging by the shift in the energy she had hit a sore spot. Reigen. Right.

"I…before I worked for Reigen I was a body guard…um…do you enjoy being an accountant?" said Serizawa. Not a lie at all. He had been there to guard the President…even though he hadn't needed it. He didn't want to think about his time with Reigen or the President or…any of those things, really. He did not want to open up any wounds…

"It's alright, I like numbers. My husband does, too, he's in finance. The math genes seem to have skipped Shigeko, though. What about you? Were you good at math in middle school?" asked Hana, her voice taking on an edge when she said 'middle school'.

"Um…I never went to…middle school….I stopped going to school when I was twelve…" said Serizawa. He did not want his mother to think that he was useless but he also did not want her to think that he was a liar, either. It was so hard to make a good impression when he didn't have anything to make a good impression with….

"Serizawa had an accident with his powers like I did when I was little and he decided to stay in his room because he was afraid of hurting someone again." said Mob. She knew that he did not like to talk about that. She could see his aura and she knew him. He was getting all sad and anxious, it was written all over his aura, and she was not going to fail him again. She was not going to let him decide to live in his room again.

"You lived in your room for…years?" asked Hana looking him up and down. Well that would explain the man child tendencies. Shigeko had tried to live in her room, too, after the accident with her powers all of those years ago. Hana had put a stop to that almost immediately. She was a mother, not a friend, and it was her job to make sure that her daughter didn't do anything stupid like throw her life away to live in her room forever….

He obviously had an overly permissive mother.

"Yes…for fifteen years before I…tried to rejoin society….but I won't ever do that again! I mean, it's not fair to Mob…she makes me…she makes me a better person like that. She makes me work for what I am and I…I love that about her." said Serizawa. He was not going to lie about that, what he had been for all of those years, but he was not going to tell the whole truth, either. He didn't want to get into the whole thing with the President…

"You…you do love her…" said Hana. Yup, those were not the words of a man just after sex…or a man with an infatuation…those were the words of a man in love. A man in love with her daughter. A grown man in love with her daughter.

She could not begin to understand. She could not begin to accept…but she had to begin to accept…or at least act like she accepted this. She did not want a son in law ten years younger than she was. She did not want her daughter to spend her life with a man child….

But she did want her daughter back.

Shigeko was fifteen years old. She would get bored of him. She would find another boy, one her own age, and maybe she would even stray….yes. That would be the thing to end whatever this was. Hana knew herself at fifteen. A boy for every day of the week. She had been attracted to plenty of grown men but she had never done anything about it. Plenty of boys her own age…and Shigeko was her daughter. She did not want her daughter to do as she had done but if it took Shigeko doing God only knew what with half the boys at her school to get away from that man then so be it.

"Yes. I love her with all my heart and I want nothing more than her happiness. I also want us to get along because…because you're her mother and she cares about you and you care about her. If you were mean or you hurt her then I wouldn't want to get to know you and I wouldn't want us to get along but I can tell that you really care about her and…and I want you to be a part of our lives." Said Serizawa

"Why?" asked Hana

"Why what?" asked Serizawa. He thought that he had been thorough in his explanation. She was Mob's mother and he loved Mob so of course he would want to get along with her mother.

"Why else do you want me to like you? Just because you want my blessing to do…this? With my daughter?" asked Hana

"No…I want you to like me because I love Mob and I want to spend the rest of my life with her…if she'll have me…and I think that it would be best if we all got along. I know that I don't have much to offer her and I ask myself every single day why she wants to be with someone like me when she could have any man she wanted….but I want to be better for her…I want to give her the kind of life she deserves. I want her to be happy…" said Serizawa. He spoke the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That was good…right?

"Mom…um….what did you do before you were an accountant?" asked Mob trying, desperately, to change the subject. She did not want her mother to know that she and Serizawa had even started talking about that. She didn't know why. Maybe because if people knew that Serizawa wanted to spend his life with her…that they talked about being married and having a family….then it would have to happen. She wanted…she didn't know if she…she had to want that. She loved him. When you loved someone then that was what you wanted to have with them.

"What? Oh…I worked in a department store through university….did I just hear what I think I heard?" asked Hana trying to wrap her mind around what that man had just said to her. That sounded like he wanted…like he wanted to be married to Shigeko…

The room was too small. There was not enough air.

"I don't know what you heard, mom, I can only hear what I hear. Do you like the curry? I can go to the store and get you something else if you want." Said Mob. She wanted out of that room. There was not enough room and there was not enough air and she needed to put some space between herself and everyone because otherwise she might even explode…

"Shigeko, stay put and don't get cheeky with me. Now I'm trying very hard to…to understand. Did he just say what I think he said?" asked Hana trying to stay calm.

"What do you think I said? I'm sorry, I'm not always good with words….I just meant that I want us to get along because I care about Mob and I want her to be happy." Said Serizawa. He didn't much like her talking about him like he wasn't there but he was not going to fight with Mob's mother.

"I think that you just said that you wanted to marry my daughter." Said Hana in a voice so tense she wondered if she was going to lose it from the sheer amount of force she had to exert over her vocal cords to keep from screaming.

"I do." Said Serizawa simply. He didn't know why Mob's aura was flaring like that, or why she almost flipped the table over, but he saved their dinner before it could get splattered everywhere. He also didn't know why her mother made that weird, strangled sort of sound…

He had said the wrong thing, hadn't he?

"….I can't do this." said Hana before she got up. Nope. Not now. This was not the time. She had tried to be understanding but she had reached her limit. She needed to go before she started shouting. She had almost started shouting right then and there…but then Shigeko had begun to lose control….so now it was time to go.

"Mom?" asked Mob as her mom got up suddenly. She and Serizawa exchanged a look before she got up. Serizawa decided to give them as much space as he could…and not just because he needed space. Not just because her mother was so opposed to Mob marrying him that she was storming out…

"Shigeko…Shige…Shige-chan….mommy needs to head home before she starts slapping people around again." said Hana as she slipped her shoes back on and headed out the door. Shigeko followed her. She wondered how far Shigeko would follow her to. Through the lobby? Down the street? All the way home?

"Mom? Are you…are you mad at me?" asked Mob. She didn't want any more fighting and any one else being mad at her or at Serizawa or at anybody.

"Shige….Shige I love you and I want nothing more for you than to come home-" said Hana

"I won't." said Mob

"And I do not want to…to alienate you…and I am trying to be understanding…just….are you truly happy here?" asked Hana

"Yes." said Mob quickly. She was happy. She was loved and therefore she was happy.

"And you…you want to be with him?" asked Hana

"Yes. I want to be here and I'm very happy. We love each other, mom, and I wish that you would just…understand….that we love each other. I mean you love dad, right? It's the same, isn't it? Love is love. I don't understand why sixteen years between me and Serizawa makes such a big difference." Said Mob

"No, you don't, because you're only fifteen just…that man wants to marry you and you….do you want to marry him?" asked Hana taking a few deep breaths as she spoke.

"…yes…" said Mob. Her mom rested her hand on her shoulder. Mob looked over at her wedding ring. Mom had worn that her whole life, it seemed, and Mob had never really gotten a good look at it. It was gold with a little diamond sitting on a claw. It was nice, she decided, but not something that she would have wanted. It looked kind of heavy, a heavy thing, being made of gold and set with a diamond and all.

She wondered what her ring would look like….

"Shigeko…Shige…are you…have you been taking your medicine? Could you be…could you be pregnant?" asked Hana. Her eyes went down to her daughter's midsection. Was she…could she be getting fatter? Her shirt was loose. Hana couldn't tell.

"No. I'm not pregnant, mom, I took a test and it was negative." Said Mob. Mom stopped breathing, it looked like, and she wondered what she had said that time. She wasn't having a baby, that was a good thing, right? Or did mom want…did she want that? Was she going to be like Serizawa's mom? Did she want…did she want grandkids?

If that were the case then mom needed to start making up her mind.

"You…you took a test…" said Hana. She was getting just a little bit dizzy. A test. Shigeko had thought that she was pregnant…because she had been having sex…with her…with her boyfriend….who was only ten years younger than Hana and her husband….

"Yes. A five minute one. It was negative. Why are you upset? Did you…did you want it to be...not negative?" asked Mob quietly

"Of course not! Shigeko, why would I want that? You are fifteen years old and you…you have no idea the fire that you're playing with! I know that no matter how much I beg and plead and cry and order and command you won't come home so….so I won't tell you to come home…but it's always there for you to come back to…and I do wish that you would come back…" said Hana taking her daughter's hand in hers.

"Mom…I don't want to come back if I'm not allowed to see Serizawa if I do…and I don't know why you don't like him just because he's a little older than me-" said Mob

"He's ten years younger than me. He's thirty one, Shigeko, he's sixteen years older than you. He spent more time…he spent more time in his room than you've been alive…" said Hana

"I know, mom, I can do math." Said Mob

"I know you can do math, Shigeko, you get it from…well not really…sorry just trying to…to lighten this whole thing…just….Shigeko you can come home whenever you want to. You will always have a place at home and I want you to come back…but you're going through a…a phase…and I suppose that this is something that you're going to have to work through on your own. If you're ever in trouble come home…" said Hana

"Trouble?" asked Mob

"Or if you ever need something come to me…or even Reigen." Said Hana. He was a good man, Reigen, even though Shigeko was still cross that he had spilled the beans on this whole situation…but that was because she was fifteen and immature. She'd see it Hana's way once more time had passed….

"What? Why Master Reigen? Me and him aren't…we had a fight…" said Mob

"I know, I mean I figured you'd be upset with him but he cares about you, Shigeko, and-" said Hana

"No he doesn't." said Mob softly.

"Yes he does, Shigeko. That's why he told me about all of this, because he cares about you." Said Hana. She might have said more but Mob stopped listening after that.

Master Reigen was the one who told on her?


	26. And Things It Can't

"Mob….are you ok? I can heat that up for you or make you something else or order you something else or-" said Serizawa. They were back at the table, now. She had come back from seeing her mother off and just sort of sat there.

Serizawa had taken that as his cue to get on with dinner. That whole exchange had been ridiculously stressful and all he wanted to do was get back to normal because it was beginning to be too much and he did not want to backslide…so he tried to get back to normal. This was normal. Just a normal dinner between him and his girlfriend.

Except she didn't eat.

She didn't talk.

She didn't even move.

"Mob?" asked Serizawa. She was still sitting there still as a statue. She hadn't even blinked it since she sat down. It seemed like…like something may have been wrong….of course something was wrong. Her mom had practically had a mental breakdown right there at the table!

"I don't understand." Said Mob after she realized that she was being addressed. She had been lost in her own head trying to figure out what, exactly, would possess Master Reigen to tell on her like that. Why would he betray her like that? That was the only word for it, betrayal. He knew that mom and dad would not have let her date Serizawa and that they would try and punish her…and he had still told on her.

"I was just thinking that because you weren't eating you might have wanted something else and I felt bad that you weren't eating and also I feel bad about what happened and-" said Serizawa

"I don't understand why he would do that…" said Mob. Why would Master Reigen just go off and tell on her? Was it because they had sex? But that would make no sense. They had sex, the two of them, and he was the one who was always going on and on about how people would think all sorts of things about them if they were a couple…so why tell her mom? Unless….unless mom only knew about Mob and Serizawa…and Master had betrayed her because he was….he was upset that she was dating Serizawa…

"Why who would do what?" asked Serizawa. She had this far off look in her eyes. She was…what was she thinking about? Whatever happened he would….he would make it better. He didn't know what this was about but he loved her and he would make it better.

"Master Reigen." Said Mob

"…what about him?" asked Serizawa. His aura had flared at the mention of Reigen. Reigen, Reigen, Reigen…she was still thinking about Reigen! He knew….he knew that he should not have been angry with her. He had said, already, that he forgave her. The wound was still raw and would probably be raw for ages to come but…but he just needed to come off of it. It had happened and unless a crazy scientist showed up in his flying time travel car there was no way to make it un-happen.

"My mom…." Said Mob. She didn't want to say it. He betrayed her. He betrayed her and…and it hurt…

"Your mother?" asked Serizawa. For a moment he has a crazy, irrational, thought and almost asks if Reigen had slept with her, too. It's crazy and irrational but that's the only place his mind can go to. What else would Reigen have to do with her mother? He had expressed, before, that he didn't much care for her mother. Called her a 'severe' woman and Serizawa could see why. He understood, now, all of those jokes on TV about guys not liking their mother in law and not wanting her around…

Which he knew was wrong. He should have gotten along with Kageyama Hana…but she made it very difficult.

"Yes. Master Reigen…he told my mom on me…" said Mob getting it out. The minute the words leave her lips she's seized by a crushing pressure in her chest. The corners of her eyes begin to prickle and her nose fills with snot. He betrayed her. How could he betray her like that?!

Serizawa was at her side in a second. He held her close and kissed the top of her head and told her that everything was going to be ok. He held her close, both of his arms around her, and he kissed the top of her head again and again and again even though he…he didn't much want to…but he did.

He did and he didn't.

She still cared about Reigen. He did not want to think about Reigen. He had been making such an effort to keep himself from thinking about Reigen and what happened…such an effort to think that she was over and done with Reigen…but she wasn't. There had been hope there in the way that she had said that she was done talking about him…but round and round they went. This ever spinning wheel…

"I just don't know why he would do something like that! He knew that I would get in trouble if mom and dad found out that I was your girlfriend….and he still did it anyway!" said Mob as she rested against Serizawa. She could her aura trying to bond with his. She let it. He was there for her. He would never betray her. He had never done anything even close to…she loved him…

She could trust him.

And she loved him for that.

Even now. Even after all of this he still loved her. He was there, holding her, even though he didn't have to. She had come close, so close, to being alone…all alone. Master Reigen hadn't wanted her…even if they had…and if Serizawa had stopped wanting to be with her…had stopped loving her…then she would have been totally alone…

"It's ok….it's all going to be ok…I'm here…" said Serizawa. The room was shaking. Thank God he had bolted down whatever he could. He wondered, briefly, if maybe he shouldn't have. Maybe he should have just let himself be crushed under the weight of his life…maybe that would have been better…better to have gotten that over with years ago…

He could feel the crushing weight of it now. The weight of her. The weight of his feelings for her. The weight of his feelings and her feelings and also…and also her feelings for Reigen….which he knew that she still must have had. Why else cry? Why not just say 'fuck him' and end it? If she were angry she could have just….she had said that she was never going to talk to him again….and yet here she was crying over him….

"You're here. You're here and I'm here. We're here together…." Said Mob through her sniffles. She could feel him, the feel of him against her…and it was nice. She untangled her arms from his and then wrapped them around him as best as she could. His chest was so broad…he was so strong. He was strong enough to shoulder all of this…strong enough to be with her even after she had done all of that…

She could have so easily been alone….

And it was all because of Master Reigen.

She could have so easily been grounded in her room right now with nowhere to go and her parents mad at her…and it was because of Master Reigen. He was willing to do that to her….but Serizawa wasn't. Serizawa was not that sort of person. He could never have done anything like that to her…anything to hurt her….

"I'm here. I'm here…Mob…Shigeko….I'm here for you…" said Serizawa. She was crying over Reigen…over his actions. If she was true in what she said…that she was done with him…then she would not have cared. She would have just been done with him and not cared but she did care and she cared because she loved him…she loved Reigen Arataka….

But she was there in his arms.

Not Reigen's.

"I know….you're always there for me…you'll always be there for me…no matter what…" said Mob. She raised her head up and rested it on his collar bone. She looked up at him through her bangs. He looked down at her. She could feel him breathing. She could feel him right there beside here…and it was so nice…

"No matter what…" said Serizawa. It was true. No matter what she did, no matter how badly she hurt him, he would always be there for her. Was that…was that ok? He wanted to be with her always but…but it still hurt. He was done hiding in his room. He was done being distant from her. Even if he did want to hide in his room and play videogames until he didn't even remember who he was….he couldn't. He had her to take care of. She made him work for what he was…and that was a good thing. Even if she had hurt him in the process it was a good thing…because she still made him a better person….and he still loved her…

"Exactly. You'll always be there for me. Even now you're here for me. Even before when my mom was hitting you with her ring hand you were there for me." Said Mob

"Well it is my apartment…" said Serizawa trying to break the tension. It didn't work. He could see it in her eyes, in her aura.

"Our apartment. It's our apartment and I wasn't about to go and leave you here all alone anyway. I'd let your mother hit me with her ring hand for as long as she wanted so long as you…as you were happy." Said Serizawa

"I wasn't happy that my mom was hitting you….that would be a terrible thing to be happy about…" said Mob

"No, I know that you weren't, but you would have been even more upset if I had gotten into a fight with your mother. I meant what I said, Mob, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't want to make enemies of either of your parents if I'm going to be spending my life with you. That would…you love your parents and I could never drive a wedge between you and them…more so than I already have." Said Serizawa

"You didn't. Master Reigen did by telling them." Said Mob

"Yes but…but it wasn't going to be a secret forever…was it? You said that once you're an adult-" said Serizawa

"I am an adult." Said Mob

"I meant that once you became a legal adult then you would tell them. That's what you said, remember?" asked Serizawa. That had to have been true. She had to have been telling him the truth then. Otherwise…it hurt, that she had been keeping it a secret, but he knew that she had a very good reason. Her mother had made her displeasure at the age thing quite clear…and she was quite strong, too….

"Yes….that's what I said. I remember. That's why…that's why I'm upset that Master Reigen…why would he try and get me in trouble like that?" asked Mob

"….he was hurt. People say and do the most terrible things when they've been hurt…" said Serizawa. That was the truth of it all, if Reigen had been telling the truth about his part in the whole thing. Serizawa tried his best to see the whole thing from Reigen's point of view. Reigen loved Mob, had no idea that she was Serizawa's girlfriend, and then when he finally thinks that he has her, the most amazing girl in the world, she's torn from him by his best friend…

And then he and his best friend got into a fistfight.

"I'm hurt! I'm hurt by what he did….and it hurts so much…" said Mob. She sniffled again. Serizawa reached up and played with her hair like she was a cat. He tried to see it from her point of view, too. She had been in love with Reigen and then the opportunity….he stopped trying to see it from her point of view. Seeing it from her point of view meant **seeing** it…and that was not something that he ever wanted to see. That was not something that he ever wanted to think about. Reigen touching her. Reigen making her happy…as happy as Serizawa had made her…could make her…

"I'm here." Said Serizawa as he ran his fingers through her hair. Mob sighed into his touch. No matter what happened he would always be there for her….

He would always love her.

"That's why….that's why I love you. You'll always be there for me…and I love you for that…" said Mob. She reached down and touched her hand to his. He pulled away, startled for a moment, but quickly reached down and took her hand before she could be hurt. He had just been surprised….but that made no sense. Of course she would want to hold his hand…she was his girlfriend.

His. Not Reigen's.

"I-I'm sorry about…about what happened. It's not all bad though. I mean Reigen did tell your mother but…but we're still together…." Said Serizawa. He held her hand in his. Maybe if he held her hand for long enough he could understand her. Why it bothered her. It did bother him a little, that Reigen would have tried to sabotage his relationship with Mob like that, actually that hurt more than a little….but the outcome hadn't been that bad. Aside from the fact that her parents were angry with her and she had that fight with her brother….aside from all of that it had ended well…because they were still together.

And they always would be.

"We still are. That's…that's right. Even though mom and dad got mad at me, and I had that fight with Ritsu, we're still together. You still love me. I still have someone who loves me….you. You love me and I love you." Said Mob. It went both ways, the love they shared. She had to be there for him or else he would lock himself in his room and live in the dark and not shower ever and he had to love her or else she'd be all alone. Master Reigen didn't want to be with her….anyway….and it hurt that he had betrayed her…but he had been hurting her a lot lately…

But Serizawa hadn't.

She leaned up and kissed just under his chin. He sat up stick straight and stared down at her.

"Mob…?" asked Serizawa. She hadn't tried to initiate anything since…Reigen. Neither had he. There was just this…thing….between them now. There was this big, insurmountable, thing between the two of them…and she wanted it gone, it seemed. She had taken…she had taken a step towards….

Did he want that?

"Do you…I'm sorry. I just…I love you and I feel really….not good…and you always make me feel good…and we love each other…and I want us to…I just want to feel close to you I guess…" said Mob. That was the closest approximation to what she felt. She didn't know how she could verbalize the feelings that grew within her…but she still tried…

"I'm right here, we are close." Said Serizawa. He was holding her in his arms. She was so tiny….she fit right there….and he was holding her….but was that enough? It had been a while for him and he…he loved it when they made love. He loved the way she felt…the way she sounded….the way she tasted….the way she smelled…the way she looked….he loved every single part of the love making process and he loved spending it with her….doing it with her….

"Is this ok, then?" asked Mob as she kissed the side of his neck again. The spot he liked. The spot that used to make him gasp and shudder and hold her close. He seemed sort of…different…now…

"Do you want….do you want this?" asked Serizawa. He had no idea what he wanted in that moment. She knew him, she knew his body, and she knew what that particular spot did to him….and it still did it for him….the made that low sound he made when he liked what she did…

"I do, that's why I'm doing this. Do you want this, Serizawa? I can stop if you want me to." Said Mob. Serizawa didn't think, he just kissed. He pulled her up and kissed her as hard as he could. She melted into him.

Good.

He tried not to think about the fact that she had most likely kissed Reigen. She had kissed him and touched him and made him feel good and told him that she loved her. He tried not to think about what happened. He tried not to think about the fact that she was probably thinking about what happened. She was kissing him but she was probably thinking about Reigen. How much she loved him. How much she missed him. How much she wanted to be with him.

She was kissing him back. Her eyes were closed. One of her hands was tangled in his hair, the other rested on his chest just over his heart.

She could feel his heartbeat, probably. He reached over and felt hers. Her heart was going a mile a minute….but for who? Not him. He knew that it couldn't be him. Even though she had just said how much she loved him…it didn't change what had happened. He wasn't enough for her. He had never been enough for her. She still loved Reigen. She had still shared herself with Reigen…

He was probably imagining it. He swore that she tasted like….but he was imagining it.

"Why'd you stop?" asked Mob. She had been kissing him, and it had been nice, but then he had just sort of gone all nonresponsive. She was in his lap, now, and her head rested above his head. She could hear it, she could feel it, and it was hers. It was hers and hers was his and she had no reason to wish that he…that he was…

Master Reigen had rejected her. Master Reigen had told her mom on her. Master Reigen had…she still missed him so much…

What was that MATTER with her!?

"No reason, just thinking….thoughts. They don't matter. This matters. You matter. Mob…I love you so much…and I know that you love me too." said Serizawa. He wanted this. He wanted this with her. Even though she had…he had been working at getting over all of this. He had been trying to move forward. It had happened and now it was over. Time to move on. Time to forgive her and get back to the way that things had always been between them…

He loved her.

"I do, of course I do. You love me so I love you. That's how it works. I wouldn't lie about something like that." Said Mob lifting her head from his chest. He reached up and ran his hand through her hair. She loved him. She loved him and she wanted this and if she wanted this then he wanted this.

"Do you…do you want to…." Said Serizawa. He motioned to the bed when he couldn't find the words. That made no sense. He had lost count of how many times the two of them had made love. Why couldn't he just SAY it?

"I'd like that a lot." Said Mob. She climbed over him and laid down on the bed. His bed. Their bed. The bed that was in that room that they both shared together. That they hadn't shared, properly shared, in a while.

That they would share.

It took him a moment to climb up there and lay next to her. She turned on her side to face him. He was looking up at the crack in the ceiling.

"We did that, I think." Said Serizawa. The crack looked worse than I ever had been before.

"It was like that when we got here." Said Mob following the path his eyes took to the ceiling.

"It's worse now, I think." Said Serizawa. He frowned. It looked deeper, and the pain was starting to peel off. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at it too. She had been the one to notice it back when they had first started….this. Their relationship.

"It's not broken though." said Mob. She felt like, maybe, they were talking about more than the crack in the ceiling. She was bad at things like that, talking sorts of things, and she didn't see the need for talking in what they were about to do. That wasn't nice though, was it? Her wanting him to just get on with it? Master Reigen had gotten right to it-

Stop thinking about him!

He rejected her. He betrayed her. He told on her to her mom. None of those things were ok.

"You're right….you're right…" said Serizawa. She rolled onto her side, now, and so did he. They faced each other. She was looking up at him through her bangs. He brushed them out of her eyes. His hand lingered, there, on her forehead before going downwards. Across her forehead, across the shell of her ear, down the side of her face, and to the bow of her lips. She kissed his thumb, her eyes never leaving his.

Her hand reached over and played with the hem of his shirt. Ok. This was happening. He was ok with what was happening. Why wouldn't he be ok with it? He was her boyfriend. This was what people did when they were in a relationship.

"You can kiss me some more, if you want." Said Mob. That was a nice way to tell him to kiss her, she decided. She wanted to pull him close and to kiss him over and over again but he was being all weird. Why? They had done this a million times before, she guessed, she had lost count a while ago.

He didn't say anything back, he just kissed her. He kissed her and he ignored the fact that she had kissed Reigen. She had kissed Reigen before they started this and she had kissed him after they started this. He just kissed her. He pressed his lips to hers and he held them there. A kiss in the most basic sense of the word. The way she had kissed him, before, back when they first started. That first kiss had been the most beautiful, the second most beautiful, moment of his life. That first kiss had been so soft and sweet and so full of feeling…

This felt different.

Because he just couldn't get out of his own head!

She was deepening the kiss now. She parted her lips and he did the same. She tasted like herself. She tasted like she always tasted and he was just to fixated on the fact that she had kissed Reigen and that was why he was imagining-

He pulled her close.

He needed to get off of this. He pulled her close and tried to roll onto his back. It took her a moment to understand, he thought, or maybe she just didn't want to. Maybe she wanted to roll back to her side of the bed and tell him that she didn't feel like it or she wanted to do something else or be somewhere else or-

He needed to stop being so weird about this.

"Do you want me to be on top? I know you like that…" said Mob as Serizawa rolled onto his back. She wanted to make him happy and he usually was so happy when they did this but now he was just being…weird.

"….sure…" said Serizawa. She climbed on top of him, her hips at either side of her thighs. She was still dressed, which he usually liked, and he liked now….he did. He leaned her down and kissed her some more. One hand on her back, the other on her thigh, and his mind miles and miles away. Where it shouldn't have been.

He tried to drag himself back into the moment. He tried to focus on the little mewing sounds she was making, now, as his hand moved from her thigh to the wet junction between her legs. He pushed down where she liked, moved the way she liked, and made her mew and beg and plead for him to keep going.

He did.

He liked it. He knew that he liked it when she sounded like this. He knew that he liked it when she asked him for this, asked him to keep going, and told him that he was doing a good job. He liked it when she rocked back and forth against him. He liked this. He liked this a lot.

He wanted this.

"Wait…like this….I like this." said Mob. She put her weight more on her knees and slid her underwear off with her powers. She was feeling kind of gross, then, with them on. He liked it when she was wearing clothes, she didn't understand why, but she wanted to make him happy. Maybe it was a boy thing. Master Reigen hadn't gotten her all the way undressed either….

Stop thinking about him.

She sat back down the way she had been. Her knees against his thighs, the blanket all bunched up under her and kind of uncomfortable and his hand up her skirt. She sat all the way back, she had been leaning on him before, and she could feel him under her. This was weird. He felt like he wanted this but his face and his aura were being all…weird.

"I'm glad…" said Serizawa. He went back to it. This was just what she liked. He knew what she liked. He knew…and so did Reigen. Reigen had touched her like this. Reigen had touched her and made her feel good and now she was surely thinking about him. She was probably wishing that Serizawa was him even though she said that she loved-

"I love that!" said Mob. There. Right there. He wasn't…Master Reigen had his own way of doing that and it had been amazing but this was good too. It was good and she needed to stop thinking about Master Reigen, especially not while this was happening, because she was Serizawa's girlfriend and she loved him and-

"I love you." Said Serizawa as she came apart. He loved her. He loved her and he loved this. He loved the way she said his name over and over again. He loved the way her thighs shook as she finished. He loved the way her nails dug into his wrist and her eyes screwed shut and his fingers made that mixing macaroni sound as he kept on going because she still liked this and she would push his hand away when she was done and she wasn't done yet even though he could feel her soaking through his pants and-

"I love you too! Let me…let me ride it through…." Said Mob. She kept on moving. It felt different, he hadn't been inside of her at all that time, but it still felt good to keep on moving during. While it happened. It lasted longer. It had felt like a lifetime, before, when she had-

Stop thinking about him. Just stop it.

Serizawa stopped. She was finished finishing. He stopped moving. She had never said that before….ever…why had she said it now? It felt like someone dropped a bucket of ice on him. She had…she had never said that before in the history of their entire relationship. Maybe she had heard that somewhere or read that somewhere or seen that somewhere or…

Or from someone.

Suddenly he wants to be alone more than anything else in the world. He had just heard her tell her mother how much she loved him…how she wanted to always be with him….and at the time it felt so good, being able to believe her, but now he….he wasn't sure. Now he was remembering what happened and it hurt to remember and she was right THERE and he wanted to be with her, he always wanted to be with her, but also….but now he just wanted to be away from her and just to sit in the dark and be alone because the world was much too big and she was much too there and he just did not know what to do.

"Are you ok? You've been all…like this." said Mob. He was looking away from her. He was looking away and had pulled his hand away and now she was just…there. Just there on top of him. She felt cold.

"I-I'm fine. I just…I'm tired. It's been a lot for me today." Said Serizawa

"Oh…does that mean that you don't want to?" asked Mob. Her fingers found the top button of his pants. He shook his head.

"I'm sorry." Said Serizawa. He could not share himself with her, and that was that best way to phrase it, right then. He just…he had thought that he could get over this. He thought that he would be able to just get up and hose himself off and get back to normal…and he had tried. He could spend his life with her, marry her, have children with her but this….maybe because this was les abstract. All of those things were for the future. This was now. This was happening now and he…he was just not ready.

"It's ok! You shouldn't apologize just because you don't feel like it right now." Said Mob. She rolled off of him and laid down on her side of the bed. She had wanted to feel close to him and she did and now it was ok. They were ok. He was there and they were ok and she had no reason to still feel bad about Master Reigen or feel like she missed him or anything like that. He had betrayed her and he had rejected her.

"It's not…it's not just about right now. It's just…I don't know when I'll feel ok about this. I just don't know….I love you. I love you and I want to share myself with you-" said Serizawa

"You've never called it that before." Said Mob softly

"I know…but that's what it feels like. When we do this I feel like I'm sharing myself with you and you're sharing yourself with me…but I just….you did this with Reigen. You did this beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing with Reigen and I just-" said Serizawa

"I don't want to talk about this." said Mob. No. She was done talking about what had happened. It had happened and now it was over and they could all just get on with their lives. Yes, she had messed up. Yes, she had hurt him. She had been hurt too, though. She had been hurt when he rejected her for the first time, hurt when she realized that she could have been with him, hurt because she had hurt Serizawa, and it had just been so much hurt and she was just…she did not want to think about what she did for another second!

"I know! I just…I don't….I do want to talk about…I don't know. I'm just…I just can't help but think about what happened and I've been trying to forget and move past this because I love you and you love me but you also love him and I-" said Serizawa

"I don't want to talk about what happened with Master Reigen anymore. I…he doesn't even like me anymore. He's mad at me because I couldn't tell that he…that he loved me…and he's mad that I'm with you and…and he told my mom on me and-" said Mob

"I don't want to talk about it either. I mean…it happened and I know that you're sorry and that you'll never do it again but…I don't know. This is just kind of hard for me right now." Said Serizawa

"…are you mad at me?" asked Mob

"No. I could never be mad at you, Mob. I love you. I just feel…I feel a lot of things right now. I'm happy that I made you happy but…I love you but…if you really want to have sex then we can…" said Serizawa. Mob shook her head as best she could from where she was laying down.

"No. Not if you don't want to. I would never make you do that if you didn't want to. We can do something else. We can play a game or watch TV or finish dinner or….anything." said Mob. She reached up and clasped her hand around his. She smiled a little. It took him a moment to smile back.

"Um….I think…I think I want to…I think I'll take a bath." Said Serizawa. She was pressing her hand to her face. She was looking at him like he was the answer to all of her hopes and dreams. He had just made her as happy as one human being could make another. He…he also needed to be alone. He needed to be alone but…but that was wrong.

Or maybe he just needed to take a shower.

He kissed her, got up, and ran himself a warm shower. He didn't get in, he just ran it. On the way to the bathroom he grabbed his phone. He sat, fully dressed, on his laundry hamper as his bathroom filled up with steam. He could hear, through the door, the EVA theme song as well as the scrape of a fork against a plate. She was watching TV and having dinner. God he loved her…

He loved her.

So why did it feel so…not good.

He clicked hi phone opened. He had told Reigen that he accepted his apology. He…he missed Reigen. He missed Reigen and he was upset that…he was upset about everything that happened. It didn't have to happen. Reigen didn't have to sleep with Mob. He didn't have to go and betray him and Mob…and Mob considered it a form of betrayal. Serizawa didn't care if her parents knew about them right now. It hadn't been-

He caught sight of himself in the mirror.

That was turning into a black eye. He could see scratches, a lot of them, from her mother's ring. Her mother had slapped him around. Her father would probably do worse. Maybe they should have waited…because it was one hell of an age gap…but he loved her. He had nothing to offer her but his love. She was all he had, really, when it came to things like this. He wanted…he wanted to be able to forgive her.

And Reigen.

And he just wanted this whole thing to be over with.

He sighed and rested his head in his hands. What was wrong with him? He should have been happy. He had her. He had her and she was his and he was hers…but it still hurt. This whole thing still hurt…and not just his face from where her mother had slapped him. This whole thing just hurt so much and he just…he didn't know.

He just did not know.

Mob did not know what was wrong with Serizawa.

He said that he wasn't mad at her but he acted like he was. He was still bothered about what happened with Master Reigen. That made sense. She had hurt him. She had hurt him and she hadn't even been thinking about it. But she was thinking about it now. She couldn't taste what she was eating, she had no idea what episode of EVA she was watching, all she could think about was the sound of the running water and him on the other side of that door…being all sad…

She had messed up.

She messed up and she didn't know what to do. He seemed like he was getting better but…but maybe it wouldn't be over that fast. Maybe this would be the sort of thing that would take a while. Well she was prepared to work at this. She had to. She didn't have anyone else to love her. She…she had lost the person who-

That person betrayed her.

Anger chased away worry. Master Reigen had betrayed her and…and that was not ok. That was not ok and she wanted to…to talk to him. Just talk. It had nothing to do with how much she missed him. It had nothing to do with how much she still cared about him. She was mad at him, that was all, and she wanted to…to talk to him. So that was what she was going to do. She had to see him, to talk to him, and it would be ok because she was mad at him for telling on her.

She wasn't going to do anything but see him…and talk.

Mob got up before she changed her mind. She got up and knocked on the bathroom door.

"I'm going out for a little bit. I'll be back later."


	27. Thinking with your Heart

"Oh hell no!"

The door was slammed in her face.

Mob knocked again. This wasn't how she had seen this whole thing going. She didn't know what she had been expecting but not that, not having a door slammed in her face, and certainly not Master Reigen yelling at her. She hadn't even gotten a 'hello' or anything like that. He just slammed the door in her face like she was a pushy door to door salesman.

"Mob, go home to Serizawa." said Reigen through the door. No. No way. He was not dealing with this shit again. She had made her choice. She had chosen Serizawa and it hurt like hell. What, was she here to rub salt in his wounds? Well she could go right ahead, there was plenty of salt around his house. Maybe she'd end up exorcising him from existence. Maybe that would have been for the best.

"Not until you tell me why." Said Mob. She wondered why this hurt so much. This hurt more than anything else, he door in her face. The door was only wood, she could have taken it down easily with her powers, but she didn't. She was going to go around breaking doors down.

She had broken enough as it was.

"Why I want you to get the hell away from my apartment? You really don't know why? You have no idea why I would be pissed at you? Really? Mob, you are not this clueless." Said Reigen. He was not opening that door. No. Not because he had been threatened, and beaten up by, a fourteen year old boy. If he opened that door and saw her and…and then he didn't know whether he would end up kissing her or killing her.

"I think that you're still mad at me." Said Mob. That made sense, that he would still be mad at her, because she was dating Serizawa after all. She was mad at him, though, for telling on her. He didn't have to do that. If she hadn't gotten in trouble then she maybe wouldn't have…wouldn't have gone to live with Serizawa. She loved him, she had to she was his girlfriend after all, but if she hadn't gotten into all of that with her mother…she didn't know what she would have done.

Because she really, really, really wanted to be with Master Reigen.

"You think?" asked Reigen sarcastically. He was not opening the door. There was no way in hell he was opening the door. He didn't want to see her….yes he did. He did but he was not opening the door. He couldn't…if he opened the door he was either going to kiss her or kill her…and both of those were not in anyone's best interest. Serizawa had texted him back. They were making up.

How were they supposed to make up and put all of this behind them when Mob was literally right outside his door?

"Yes, I think so….and I'm mad at you, too." Said Mob

"Mad at me? Why? What the hell did I do you?! Mob, you are the one in the wrong here! You're the one who-" said Reigen

"You didn't have to tell my mom on me!" said Mob stomping her foot and making the building shake. That last part was on accident. She was just so mad at him. She couldn't remember ever being this mad at him before in her entire life. First he rejects her and then he tells her mom on her? Who did that?!

"….yes I did." Said Reigen. Ok, he could have lived a long life without having told Mrs. Kageyama about what her daughter had been getting up too. He had been petty and immature and it was a goddamned miracle that Mob hadn't told her mother EVERYTHING that she had been getting up to. He didn't have to but he also kind of did. It had made him feel better in the moment.

He wondered how he could possibly feel better in this moment.

"No you didn't! You didn't have to tell her about me and Serizawa but you did and then I-" said Mob. The door rattled a bit. She didn't know if that had been him or her. She was mad. She was so mad. She was so mad at him. This was all his fault! If he hadn't told his mom on her, or if he hadn't told Serizawa that they had sex together, or if-

Or if she hadn't cheated in the first place.

"You're pinning this on me?" asked Reigen. He may have been speaking too loudly. She may have been speaking too loudly. Maybe the neighbor who was banging on his wall and telling him to shut his mouth was just being too sensitive. Maybe he should have opened the door. Maybe this was not the thing to be talking about through a closed door.

Maybe he wouldn't kill her.

He wanted to.

Maybe he wouldn't kiss her.

He wanted to.

"I shouldn't have cheated, that was wrong of me, but you shouldn't have told on me. You're not supposed to tell on people like that. It's not ok." Said Mob

"But what you did is?" asked Reigen

"No. I already said that it was wrong of me to cheat." Said Mob

"On who?" asked Reigen

"On Serizawa. I was his girlfriend but I had sex with you and that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have had sex with you that night no matter how much I wanted to or how much I loved you." Said Mob. She also maybe shouldn't have been saying 'sex' so loudly but it was what happened. She didn't want to call it sleeping together because that would have been too impersonal. Making love didn't fit because…that was what she had felt when they did that…and it was the best that she had ever had in her entire life…but it had been wrong. Even though she loved him.

She loved him so much.

"Mob….don't say that." Said Reigen closing his eyes. Right. He had done that with Mob. He had done that with Mob and there was no going back from that. It was a thing that had happened. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him…for about ten minutes. For ten minutes he had been making love to her, actually making love for the first time in his life, with Mob…the first person he had actually loved in his entire life. The only person he had ever loved, truly loved, and it was Mob.

Why did it have to be Mob?

"But we did have sex." Said Mob. He was not going to pretend like it never happened. Sometimes you had to pretend that things never happened, like when your brother walked in on you getting dressed or like when you were little and you thought you heard your parents fighting…but they weren't fighting….sometimes you had to pretend that things never happened…

But she was not going to pretend that what happened between her and Master Reigen never happened.

"Mob…not so loud…" said Reigen. The world did not need to know about that. The world did not need to know that he had slept with Mob. The world did not need to know that he was the sort of person who slept with, who fell in love with, fifteen year old girls. A fifteen year old girl. That fifteen year old girl. The world did not need to know that he had fallen in love with and slept with that fifteen year old girl standing right outside his door.

His ex-best friend's fifteen year old girlfriend.

He had tried to steal his ex-beat friend's fifteen year old girlfriend. Or maybe Serizawa stole her from him. She had thought that he had rejected her, permanently, so she jumped into bed…and a relationship…with his ex-best friend. Serizawa had no clue that she even…that he even…and then Reigen had to go and hit him…

That had been wrong.

This whole situation was wrong.

The fact that he wanted nothing more than to open that door and kiss her like there was no tomorrow was wrong.

"But we did! We did and you can't just act like we didn't! This is not one of those things that you have to pretend never happened! It did happen! We had-!" said Mob. She was being loud, now, and she had to be. He needed to listen to her. Maybe he should have listened to her since the beginning. Maybe if he had just been in a relationship with her in the beginning then none of this would have happened in the first place!

The door opened.

"Mob! Get in this fucking house before you wake up the whole neighborhood!" said Reigen. Ok, now he had to let her in. He had no choice. He liked where he lived and he didn't much feel like getting kicked out because the teenage girl he was in love with wouldn't stop shouting at the top of her lungs about things that the world needed to mind it's own business about.

"Now you want me to come in?" asked Mob. This was so confusing. One minute he wanted nothing to do with her and now he was…inviting her in?

"Yes! Get in here and stop screaming!" said Reigen. She walked through the threshold of his doorway and took off her shoes. She took her shoes off slowly and deliberately. She put them together, right next to his, and even faced them the right way. Heh. Well she was more polite than the last Kageyama that had come bursting through his door.

"I'm inside and I'm not screaming anymore, Master Reigen." Said Mob as she finished taking her shoes off. She had taken her time with that. She needed her time. She needed to figure out what it was she was going to say. What it was she was going to do.

Not that.

Even though she wanted to. She loved him. She had been hurt by him. She had hurt him, too. Now they were together and he hadn't been so close to her…and she hadn't even seen him since the night that they…since the night they had sex.

Slept together.

Made love.

Did that amazing thing that two people did when they were in love. That amazing, wonderful, thing that she had done so many times before but never as well as she had done it with him. She remembered the way it felt to have him on in, around her, in her. She remembered the way his stubble scratched her face but in a good way. She remembered how good it had felt. Kissing him. Touching him. Being touched by him.

Her hair was floating.

"I know. I know you're here. I know you aren't screaming anymore…" said Reigen. He ran his hands through his hair. He was unsteady, just a little, because it had been that part of the evening.

"You're hurt." Said Mob. She could see him, now, in the light of the apartment. His apartment. She had never been in his apartment before…and it was messier than she thought that it would be. He had a lot of empty cans and food containers around. Lots of clothes on the ground, too.

Why were boys so messy?

If she had been living there she would have cleaned up.

If she had been living there she would have stopped him from getting hurt. He had a black eye, that was the most noticeable, but he also had some bruises too…and it looked so…he looked so hurt. He had gotten hurt and she hadn't been there….but she couldn't be there for him. She shouldn't even have been there now. She had told Serizawa that she was going out but she hadn't said where because she knew that if he knew he would have gotten hurt again.

Maybe she should have just stayed home.

"Yeah. You can thank your brother for that." Said Reigen bitterly. She reached out and took his hand. He pulled away. It didn't matter. She had still touched him. He hadn't seen her, hadn't touched her, since that night…and he had thought of almost nothing else. When he wasn't in a drunken spiral of self-loathing he was remembering the way she felt…the way she sounded…the way the entire thing had felt.

That was the best time of his life.

And it could never happen again. He wasn't going to kill her and he wasn't going to kiss her…even though it would have been so easy. She was there, he was there, and he could have kissed her. He wanted to. She probably wanted to. Heh. Maybe that was why she had crossed the city in the middle of the night.

Or maybe she had just come all this way to give him a piece of her mind.

"Ritsu? Why would he…well he never liked you….but he shouldn't have hit you. I'll make him say sorry." Said Mob

'Mob. Don't." said Reigen

"But he shouldn't have-" said Mob

"Do you really think that you're in any position to start moralizing at people? Are either of us?" asked Reigen. He did not want to get into it with her little brother. The kid might actually kill him next time.

"What?" asked Mob. She didn't see how telling her little brother not to go around beating people up for no reason was moralizing. Even if it hadn't been for no reason. Even if Ritsu knew…well if Ritsu knew the whole of what happened then she could never set foot in her house again. She'd have to flee the city. It was the only way. It was bad enough that Ritsu knew about her and Serizawa but now….now he knew about Master Reigen too….maybe….

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Said Reigen

"They make glass houses? But why? Everyone would be able to see inside. How would you change clothes? Take a bath? Who's buying these houses? And why would they go around throwing rocks if they lived in glass houses?" asked Mob. That was…that was weird. It made no sense. None at all. She must have missed something. She must have because now Master Reigen was smiling at her.

Then he laughed a little.

Then he laughed out loud at her. She crossed her arms and looked down at her shoes. She knew that she was bad at things like that and he didn't have to laugh at her. He knew it, that she was clueless, and he shouldn't have been laughing at her. First he rejected her and then he told on her and now he was laughing at her.

She was just about to get her shoes on and go home when he said something that she didn't know if she wanted to hear.

"Mob….Mob I fucking love you…" said Reigen. That was a pure Mob-ism. He hadn't heard any of her Mob-isms in so long. He loved her. He loved everything about her, even her cluelessness…and he shouldn't have said that. But he could read her. He had known her long enough to be able to read her. She was about to leave. She had taken that the wrong way and she had been about to walk right out that door…

And she couldn't.

Because he didn't know if he would ever see her again. That was the worst part of all of this. She was still so perfect, he loved her so much, and she still wasn't his. If she had walked out that door then she would have been walking right back to Serizawa and he…he didn't want that. He never wanted that. He wanted her to be there…and all to himself….and that was the worst and he was the worst. She was fifteen, she had an excuse, but he didn't. Not for loving her, not for what he had done to his best friend, and not for wanting to do nothing more than to pull her into his arms and kiss her until they…until it went to it's natural conclusion.

"Master….don't say that." Said Mob softly. Her hair was trying to float away. He still loved her. The thought was enough to carry her right off the ground. She was rising off the ground. First her heels, then the middle of her foot…was it called the arch? That part rose off the ground until only her toes were touching the ground. She could feel the tips of her toes trying desperately to grasp the carpet.

He loved her.

She loved him.

And wasn't that just the worst?

"Don't call me that." Said Reigen as he reached over and held her forearms. He pulled her back down to the ground. It was better for her to lose control and float away instead of her losing control and destroying his apartment. But if she were to float away, away and out of his life forever, then it would destroy him.

"Master? But you're Master Reigen….but I can call you just Reigen if you want…since I guess that you don't…I thought that you didn't like me anymore but you just said that you loved me and this is very confusing for me." Said Mob as she let him hold her. The more he held her the more she felt like she was going to float away. He was so strong. He was so strong and she was in his arms, like she had been that night, and she was starting to forget Serizawa like she had forgotten him that night. But she couldn't forget him.

Not again.

That would have been wrong.

The whole thing would have been wrong. She wanted to lean in and kiss him. There was a couch across the room. She wanted him to carry her to that couch. She wanted him to carry her over and lay her down and make her feel everything that he had made her feel that night…

No.

She remembered why she had come all the way to his apartment in the middle of the night. She had been mad at him and she had to keep on being mad at him because otherwise she could have, and would have, done something stupid. That same stupid thing that had gotten her into this mess in the first place. He was so close…he was close enough that she could even smell him. He smelled, before, like green tea and smoking and incense and aftershave. Now he mostly smelled like smoking and his deodorant and…and something that could only be described as Reigen Arataka.

She pushed her thighs together.

She had done that because she wanted…she wanted a lot of things with him…and she thought that maybe it would have been best if she stopped herself before she did something stupid like step between his legs, or step so that he was between her legs like he had been that night, and then a lot of stupidity would happen. She could not hurt Serizawa again. He loved her.

He loved her.

He did a lot for her.

He had forgiven her once. He might not have been able to forgive her a second time.

"Mob…I'm pissed at you. I love you but I am so, incredibly, pissed at you." Said Reigen with a dry laugh.

"I don't know what's so funny but I'm mad at you too." Said Mob

"What are you mad at me for? Mob, you're the one who deceived me. I would have never done any of that with you if I knew that you were in a relationship with my best friend….you hurt me, Mob. You hurt me when you did that and you hurt him too." Said Reigen. He still held her. Her face was flushed. Her hair was rising up from her back. Her eyes were free of her bangs and he could see just how brown they were…

And she was rocking back and forth with her thighs together.

Chaste arousal in all of it's glory. Not that he was going to make the mistake of thinking of her as a virgin. That ship had sailed long ago…and he had missed the boat. Not that he attached any meaning to first times. God knew that she hadn't been his. She had wanted him and he wanted her…then and now…but he couldn't. The first time he hadn't had even the faintest idea that she had been with Serizawa. Now he knew and there was no way for him to justify his actions to himself let alone Serizawa.

"We were both there….we both wanted to." Said Mob

"Yeah, but I had no idea that you were in a relationship with Serizawa. How in the hell did that even…and why are you even still with him? Mob, you thought that I rejected you, that was on me, but you didn't have to go messing with Serizawa like that." Said Reigen

"I don't want to talk about this." said Mob

"Well we're talking about it right now. Mob…hurting him is on you. I shouldn't have hit him but you…you should have told me at some point that you were with him." said Reigen

"But then you wouldn't have wanted to be with me like that….and I wanted that with you…I had wanted it with you for so long….and then it happened and it was the best thing ever…" said Mob

"Mob…don't…don't say that. Your words have meaning. Don't just say things to me that aren't-" said Reigen

"I'm not lying….it was the best ever….you were the best…and I feel bad that I think that. I feel bad about what I did and what I want to do…." Said Mob

"You and me both." Muttered Reigen

"But you still love me?" said Mob. Her eyes held his gaze. She needed to know. Even if she couldn't love him back she still…she still wanted to know how he felt. The truth this time, the whole truth. If he had just been direct in the first place then none of this would have happened. Then she could have been his girlfriend like she had wanted to be for all of these years….

"Of course I still fucking love you, Mob, there is nothing in the world that will ever make me stop loving you." Said Reigen. He meant that from the core of his being. No matter what she did he would never have stopped loving her. Had she been anyone else he would have noped out of this drama-rama ages ago. But he didn't because it was her. He felt this way for her….

For her, for her, always for her.

"If you love me then why did you tell on me?" asked Mob softly

"Because I was hurt. Mob…I love you so much and when it all came out I just…it hurt. It hurt and I felt so cornered that I…that I just…I wanted to hurt you…" said Reigen. She stared at him. She was trying to understand him. He knew that look. He knew all of her looks.

"How can you love me but also want to hurt me?" asked Mob

"I don't want to hurt you now. I wanted to hurt you then because…Mob….what would you do if I or…oh God if Serizawa….slept with another girl. Woman. If either of us slept with someone else. Imagine that and tell me how you feel." Said Reigen. Mob closed her eyes and tied her best. The problem was that she didn't know any other women that they all knew besides her mother…and that was gross as all else….or maybe Minegishi…who used to be a girl but was now a boy but still got a period….she wasn't sure if she should have asked how that one worked….

This was hard to imagine.

Maybe he didn't mean any specific woman. She didn't know any real, specific, women so she imagined Asuka from EVA because she seemed like the sort of person who, when she liked someone, would just ask them to have sex with her. She had tried that in episode….now was not the time to think about EVA…but if either Serizawa or Master Reigen had slept with Asuka then she would have been impressed because Asuka was an EVA pilot and she could have…

That was not the point of this exercise.

But it didn't bother her. Not really. She knew that Master Reigen had been with other women before her. It didn't bother her. Serizawa had never been with anyone else but if he wanted to be with someone else then she wouldn't have stopped him. All of this fighting and hurt feelings and jealousy and stuff was just too much. It would have been simple if people could just be with one another and not have to worry about other people's feelings.

But that was not how it worked.

People paired up. Boys and girls. Boys and boys. Girls and girls. Girls who used to be boys and boys who used to be girls. Any combination of those. But it had to be a pair. People were in pairs, they paired up, that was what they did. That was how it went.

"Mob….you…ok?" asked Reigen shaking her a little. Well she had certainly been deep in thought there…and that may or may not have been a good thing.

"I'm fine, I was just thinking. I wouldn't mind." Said Mob

"What?" asked Reigen

"If you slept with someone else. I mean I know that you must have, you were really good, and you're you…a lot of people must want to be with you, so it doesn't bother me." Said Mob

"No, I didn't mean-" said Reigen

"Also if you wanted to be with someone else while we were together than I would be ok with that too. The way I feel, the way you feel, and the way Serizawa feels…they aren't good feelings. I don't want to feel like this and I know that Serizawa doesn't want to feel like this and I guess that you don't want to feel like this if it's anything close to how Serizawa and I feel….so if there was some way that we could all be with whoever we wanted to be and have everything that we wanted but also if we could be with other people I would like that. It wouldn't hurt me." Said Mob. She wondered if she had said the wrong thing. Master Reigen was still staring at her….

"Mob…that's called an open relationship….and people do that all the time…with varying results." Said Reigen. Well then. WELL THEN.

He had learned something new about her.

Maybe she just didn't understand monogamy. She was notoriously clueless in every other area of her life so why would her romantic life be any different? That would…that would have explained a lot, actually. Well then. There went all of the anger, what little anger remained anyway, it was hard to stay mad at her. It was so hard to stay mad at her when she was there, in his arms, so small and there and perfect. She wasn't trying to rise off the ground…or maybe she was. He didn't know. All he knew was that she was there and she…she wanted to be his…and he couldn't because…because that would have been wrong…

But not in the perfect world that Mob was imagining.

"Why doesn't everyone do that? It would make things a lot easier….and people could be happy…we could be happy…" said Mob

"Because not everyone's made for that, Mob. A lot of people can't handle it…like Serizawa. Mob he could not handle that. You don't…you don't know how he talks about you. He loves you and he genuinely wants to spend the rest of his life with you. Those aren't just words, Mob, when a person says that to you then they mean it." Said Reigen

"I know, he told me. I told me a bunch of times and he…and he told my mom when she came to visit…" said Mob

"What the ever loving….your mom…and she didn't kill him?" asked Reigen. Well he had missed a hell of a lot. He knew, somewhat knew, her mother…and she would have killed Serizawa if she could have. But she had just…come over for a nice visit?

"She hit him with her ring hand a bunch of times and then left the house really fast when Serizawa said that he wanted to marry me. We aren't going to get….I mean I guess that we are because he wants to…and if he wants to then I want to….and I was about to when I thought that I was pregnant…" said Mob. Master Reigen let go of her like she was on fire.

"You're pregnant!? What the…ok….ok you don't…this is not my decision….God damn it! How could I have been so stupid!? Ok…ok….don't panic. You…you have options. You have options and I-I support you in whatever you choose….I can't raise a kid! A kid that might not even be mine! Sorry I just…that was not conductive to anything just….how could I have been so stupid?!" said Reigen. He began to pace back and forth. He and Mob had unprotected sex on the office couch and this was what came of having unprotected sex on the office couch…or anywhere…

If Mob was regularly having sex then she should have planned for this better!

Or at all!

But she hadn't and now they were in this mess and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about this and there was nothing that he could do because he couldn't force her to do the only sensible thing that there was to do and he knew that she wouldn't do it either because Mob and sensible went together about as well as milk and orange juice and now there was going to be a new person in the world that he was going to be responsible for and oh God! He had gotten a fifteen year old girl pregnant! How was he supposed to explain this to his mother or his father or-or-or anyone?!

He had gotten a fifteen year old girl pregnant.

He had gotten his ex-best friend's fifteen year old girlfriend pregnant.

There was a human being in the world, now, because he couldn't keep his pants on for five minutes!

"Master, I'm not-" said Mob

"Will you please stop calling me that?! We are well past the point of being master and student! We are having a fucking baby together! That kid might not even be…and if it is I can't….Mob, look around! I can barely take care of myself let alone a family….what the hell are we going to do?! Serizawa….this'll kill him. This will put him in the ground faster than your mother ever could….your mother! Your mother is going to do more than slap me around with her ring hand! And your brother already tried to run me out of town….he might actually kill me…and if doesn't your father will! I'm guessing that he's the one your brother gets it from! Oh my God….Mob I have a half-brother your age….I have a half-brother that I haven't seen since three days after he was born and now someone's going to have to explain to him that the brother he's never really met got a girl his age pregnant…my father is going to explain it to him…and then he's going to drive to Seasoning City and murder me…and then my mother is going to murder me…and then Serizawa is going to exorcise me because I got his girlfriend pregnant-" said Reigen

"But I'm not-" said Mob grabbing his arms to keep him from walking back and forth across the dirty carpet. His feet crunched when he walked, the ground was covered in chips crumbs, but they stopped when he stopped.

"Mob, you cannot begin to understand the gravity of this situation. We. Are. Fucked. If you don't have an abortion right now we are fucked. You need to….Mob it's the only sensible thing to do! We can't raise a kid together! Not now! Mob, you are fifteen…you don't want to be a fifteen year old mother! Nobody wants you to be a fifteen year old mother! Girls your age cannot raise kids! You're not even in high school yet! And me…I don't live well! Look around you, I am not doing well for myself at all! We cannot raise a kid here! This…this is not place for a baby…" said Reigen. She was holding him in place with her hands, not her powers, which was…odd. She had been so close to floating off the ground before but now she was just…there. She wasn't freaked out in the slightest. That meant that she had made up her mind…

Maybe she hadn't just come by to yell at him for tattling to her mother.

He was fucked. They were fucked. This whole, entire, complete, situation was royally fucked.

"Can you just listen-" said Mob. He just…he just would. Not. Stop. Talking. He was freaking out. Serizawa hadn't even been this freaked out. He had been worried but he had also been sort of excited. He had a plan while she was there waiting for the longest five minutes of her life to pass. He had a plan for how they would make money and take care of the baby and where they would live and all of that…and what he didn't know he said that they had time to figure out together….

Master Reigen was just freaking out.

Maybe freaking out was the normal thing to do. Having a baby was a big deal. She hadn't given it much thought in the past, people just had babies, but it was different when she could have been the one having a baby. It was a huge thing, making another person, and she…she didn't think that she could have gone through with it at this point in her life…even with Serizawa's help….and Serizawa hadn't told her to do anything. He said that he supported her in whatever she chose to do…and Master Reigen had told her what to do…

But he was right, she didn't want to be a fifteen year old mother…

But she wasn't even pregnant! She had peed on the stick and the stick said that she wasn't pregnant, she just hadn't had a period in a very long time….but she wasn't pregnant…..so maybe that was the sort of thing she needed to bite the bullet and get her insurance card from home so she could see a doctor about it and make sure that she wasn't dying….

Also Master Reigen was freaking out over nothing! She and Serizawa hadn't been this freaked out and here he was all upset about something that he wasn't even giving her a chance to tell him wasn't happening!

"….can't marry a teenage girl…it's not even legal unless your parents sign the forms…and they are not signing anything! Oh God…I need air. There is not enough air in here! How can you be this calm! Mob, you are having a baby and I'm guessing you plan on raising it….it's your right to….Mob think about the kid! The kid does not need a kid for a mom! The kid does not need a functional alcoholic for a father! The kid needs-" said Reigen

"Stop freaking out! Serizawa and I didn't even freak out like this! There isn't even anything to freak out about! I'm not even-" said Mob

"I will freak out! Mob, this is huge! You're PREGNANT! There is a human being growing inside of you right now! You're just….you need to freak out! And how was Serizawa not….well he'd like this. Now you can't leave him. You can never leave him now…because it's probably his kid….and you can never leave him now….or it's mine….but there's a kid involved in this mess now….you came here to tell me that there's a kid involved in this mess now….could be my kid…" Said Reigen. Mob took a deep breath and dug her nails into his arm. She didn't mean to do that last part but she'd had all that she could take and she could take no more.

"Reigen Artaka…I AM NOT PREGNANT! I peed on the stick and it said negative! I am not having a baby and you would have known that if you had stopped freaking out and had just listened to me! I came here because I was mad at you for telling my mom on me! That's all….and also I guess because I miss you….but not to tell you that I was pregnant! Because I'm not. I thought that I was but I'm not." Said Mob. She was breathing heavy, now, like she had just run her school's marathon and finished in first place. She just needed him to shut up for five seconds and listen to her!

The room was trembling.

She was trembling.

He was trembling.

"Mob…" said Reigen softly. He had never been so relieved in his entire life. She wasn't pregnant. He hadn't gotten a teenage girl pregnant! Wait…that wasn't the sort of thing he should have been patting himself on the back about because he shouldn't have been having unprotected sex with anyone…even her…even though it had been the most amazing…no. It could never happen again. She was holding onto him, now, and she was there and she was….she was strangely attractive when she was angry….and these were not the thoughts to have about someone that he had, just seconds before, been freaking out because he had thought that she had been pregnant.

"Ok…you're listening now…I'm not having a baby." Said Mob. She swallowed even though her throat was dry. She could have let go of him, she should have let go of him, but she didn't…she didn't want to. Her eyes darted over to the couch. It would have been so easy….but she had made a promise to Serizawa….and also she was his girlfriend….and also he had just been freaking out because he thought that she was pregnant!

That was how people got pregnant in the first place, thoughts like that.

"Ok. You aren't…you aren't pregnant….good. Also you're….I mean I got tested so you don't…unless you've been with someone besides me or-or…oh God…or Serizawa…" said Reigen

"We didn't. I mean I wanted to but we didn't." said Mob

"Don't lie to me, you're terrible at it. I know you weren't a virgin, then, I mean I know now that you weren't a virgin…I mean…." said Reigen. She still hadn't let him go. He still didn't want her to let him go.

"I never said I was. I meant that….you were talking about that night….I was talking about how he and I haven't done…that…in a while. Had sex. Not since before…because it bothers him that I had sex with you…that I wanted to have sex with you…and I think he can tell that I still want to have sex with you…but that's wrong. I love…I'm his girlfriend. I have to love him." said Mob softly

"Mob, no, there is no 'have to'. This is a relationship you two…you two have…and relationships should never be obligations…" said Reigen

"I know. I don't…I'm an adult and I have to do what adults do. He loves me and I-I promised him that I would never hurt him again…and he didn't give me any reason to hurt him. all he's ever done is love me…and I didn't love him when we…I think that I was just hurting when we…when we started….after I confessed to you….I think that I just had something to prove…" said Mob

"Yeah, I know. I've…most people have been there before. It's called a rebound and it sucks. You're hurt and rejected so you jump into bed with the first person who…who you know is a sure thing. It sucks but…but it's something that most people go through once. Some people more than once." Said Reigen

"I…it was wrong of me to…I didn't think that he would fall in love with me….I didn't think about what could happen…I only thought about you and…and how much I wanted to be with you…that was all I could think about. Then he said that he loved me and…and I didn't love him then but I think I love him now…I think. The way I feel about him is different from how I feel about you…when I'm with him I feel like…like I have to love him because I'm afraid of hurting him. I'm the one who made him feel this way and he…he's not good with hurt feelings. I don't want him to live in his room and not shower again and he…he's very nice to me. He cares about me. He wants us to get married and have babies and live in his mom's house…I mean he says that we can live wherever I choose but I think he wants to live with his mom…and I don't…I don't even know her! But he knows my mom and he told my mom that he wants to marry me and I told my mom that I want to marry him and I…I've never thought this much about getting married in my entire life! Or having a house or a job or a family or a baby…but I'm an adult now…but it's so hard…but adults are always saying that it's hard…and Master…I mean Reigen….I don't know what to do besides…besides be his girlfriend." said Mob

"Have you…have you told him any of this?" asked Reigen. She wasn't happy. She wasn't happy with Serizawa and he didn't blame her…or even him. Neither of them was…nobody in that situation was mature enough for any of this. Mob for not thinking her actions through, Serizawa for catching feelings and not stopping to think about…anything! And Reigen himself for jerking Mob around instead of just accepting that he wanted to be with her just as badly as she wanted to be with him.

Maybe they all deserved each other.

"No. I can't say mean things like that to him. He loves me and I…I don't know how I feel about him. The way I feel about him is different than the way I feel about you…and I feel like they're both love…and I just….Master Reigen I want to be with you! I want to be your girlfriend even though you rejected me, before, and told on me to my mom, and even the stuff that happened to us before all of this. Master…I mean Reigen….I love you…" said Mob. Reigen stopped listening after I love you. Mob…Mob loved him…and she was hurt…and everything hurt…and she was there and she was hurting and she loved him…

He didn't think.

He just kissed her. He kissed her knowing fully well that she was in a relationship. He kissed her knowing fully well that she was fourteen years younger than him. He kissed her knowing that he may not be able to stop at kissing her. Stop at parting her lips. Stop at tasting her. Stop at is hand buried in her hair and the other around her waist.

But she stopped.

And now she was kissing him again. This wasn't one long kiss, this was several peppered to his lips, his cheek, and then lower to his neck. Then she **bit** and she **sucked** and she almost brought him to his knees with her downright shameless moaning of his name.

"Reigen…Master Reigen…Reigen….Aratak…." said Mob. She said his name like it was a chant that could ward off the badness of what it was that she was doing. She was kissing him and he was tugging on her hair and on her shirt and now his hand was…it was….oh.

Oh.

Oh yes.

His hand had made it's way under her shirt and undershirt and now he was playing with her…oh! He was good at that! He went in circles and touched her just enough to…yes! And he pinched…which she had thought would have hurt but not in a good way…

He nudged her head to the side and kissed her again.

His other hand had left her hair and was going down her back. It swept down lower and lower and lower…and then higher. When he got to her legs he went higher. He went up her skirt and…and she knew how good this could feel. She stepped forward just a bit while they kissed, enough for his fingers to have room to move up…and enough for their teeth to scrape, too.

That wasn't the good kind of hurt.

This wasn't good.

She wanted this but she was not….she was not supposed to want this. She was not supposed to want his fingers to push her underwear to the side like he had before…or to do the thing with two fingers inside and his thumb pushing down on the nubby thing….and it wasn't good that her knees went weak or that she was so wet it sounded like he was stirring macaroni and cheese….and it wasn't good that he was kissing her neck now, hard, like she liked it…and it wasn't good that she was getting closer and closer and the closer she got the more the lights flickered and the room shook and she said his name over and over again…

And it wasn't good that she finished.

Nothing about that situation was good.

She had broken her promise.

So she had to leave.

And that was what she did.

"Mob! Wait! Don't-!" said Reigen as she practically ran out of his apartment. She didn't even stop to put her shoes on, she just ran out of there in her sock feet….her shoes followed her out the door…the door that she had left opened….because she had run away…because they had both messed up again….

God damn it all!

Just….God damn it all.

He had messed up again and now she was gone…again.

And this time it was all his fault.

Mob knew that this time it was all her fault. She knew what she was doing was wrong and she had done it anyway….and she could never tell Serizawa….ever. The truth of what had happened would devastate him…so she needed to lie even though she was bad at it….but for his sake she had to do it.

So she lied.

"Mob! Where were you? Not to be weird or anything, you can leave whenever you want…and why do you smell like that?" asked Serizawa. He tried to look like he had just been playing videogames, that was all, and not pacing a hole in the floor worrying about her. He had been. She had just said that she was going out. It was a big city, out could have meant literally anywhere.

He needed to trust her.

Even if she did leave the house in the middle of the night without telling him where she was going or when she'd be back….not that he needed to know her every move. This was just…odd for her.

"The store. I went to the store. I smell like this because I bought perfume at the store. Also I bought snacks. That's where I was, at the store." Said Mob. Not a true lie, she had stopped by the store after…that…and she had bought snacks and perfume. The perfume was to cover up the smell of Master Reigen, she smelled like him and smoking, and the snacks were because it would have been weird if she just came back with only perfume.

"…you went out in the middle of the night for perfume…and snacks?" asked Serizawa. That was…weird. Very weird….but then again he was not a girl and never had been so maybe nighttime perfume runs were a thing that girls did but he had just never seen her do. Also she might have just been hungry, too, even though they had loads of food at the house.

He trusted her.

"Yes. That's what I did." Said Mob quickly. She tossed the bag on the floor and then went to put her nightshirt on. She could feel his eyes on her as she changed. Maybe she should have changed in the bathroom…but maybe that would have been weird. He had seen her naked already and she didn't want him, or anyone, seeing her naked right then….but she didn't want to tell him why….and he was still looking at her.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Said Serizawa as he caught sight of the massive red marks on her neck. Those must have been deep if they had taken that long to show up.

"No! You have nothing to be sorry for! Don't ever say sorry to me again! Ever!" said Mob. The room shook. He stabilized it with his powers. She saw his aura meet hers and she shrank back. He got up and…and she expected him to start accusing her of running out in the middle of the night and doing exactly what she had been doing….

But instead he held her.

And that was the worst feeling in the world.

"Mob….if something's bothering you then you can tell me. I just…you're acting all nervous and I want you to know that I'm here for you. Is this about what happened with your mother? Or about…after that? Or are you just…" said Serizawa trying to find a polite way of asking his girlfriend if this was the whole 'girls are very emotional' time that came before a period that he had heard so much about. Girls were supposed to yell and yell at everything, and men were, supposedly, usually the 'everything', and she said that it had been a while….not that it was any of his business.

"Nothing, it's nothing. I didn't do….can we cuddle? I want to cuddle…" said Mob even though she didn't want to cuddle at all. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to dig a hole and live alone in it for the rest of her life. That way she couldn't hurt anyone ever again. She saw it, the appeal of living in her room for the rest of her life, but she had moved out so she…she couldn't do that. She wished that this place had more than one room. Then she could have just…been….she could have been alone with the misery she caused everyone around her…she just kept on hurting him. She hadn't set out to hurt him but she did…because she wanted to be Master Reigen…and he had kissed her! He had been the one to kiss her so it had been…she hadn't pushed him away. She hadn't stopped kissing him, hadn't stopped him from touching her, even though she knew that it was wrong.

Now she and Serizawa were cuddling in their bed, in the bed, while the TV was on like it was just a normal night and nothing had happened…and to him it was just a normal night…a normal night with the girl he loved most in the world.

He loved , he had done nothing but love her, be there for her, care for her and she had done nothing but hurt him.

And she wasn't even sure why.


	28. Whatever the Outcome

"I think that I'm a bad person." Said Mob. She was at work now, plant work, and she was starting to get what Minegishi was always saying about how plants were better than people. Plants never asked you what was wrong or told you they loved you or told you they missed you or waited for you to come home and tell them about your day and had dinner waiting for you…

Dinner sounded pretty good right about then.

Greasy fried chicken, savoy ramen bowls, big piece of chewy candy…the citrus kind. Yes, citrus, even though Sho was always saying that citrus was the most disgusting thing ever invented. Lemon chews and orange soda and big juicy grapefruits….

He'd have probably made something healthy for them. But he would make them whatever she wanted. He loved her like that. He loved her in every single way a person could love another. He loved her like the day was long and candy was sweet and milk was delicious and the time it took for them to release a new EVA movie was entirely too long.

He loved her.

She was terrible.

"You're utterly irredeemable I'm sure." Said Minegishi as me moved some plants to a spot with more favorable sunlight. He didn't mind it when they made their needs known. They were never annoying and never asked for more than he was willing to give. They never asked to be friends. It was a simple relationship between him and the plants, one that he had understood his entire life, and one that existed in stark contrast to whatever kind of relationship that girl was trying to strike up with him.

Apparently they were the sort of friends who spilled all of their self-loathing to one another.

"Do you really think so or are you just saying things?" asked Mob

"Which answer would make you happier?" asked Minegishi

"Whichever is true, I guess. I mean I think that I'm a bad person and…and I guess that it would make sense for you to think so too." Said Mob. She felt sick, very sick, because of what she had done. She had felt sick to her stomach almost every single day since she had…since she had done that awful thing that she had done. Again. Without any excuse. She had just done…that…well not had sex but…but somehow it felt even worse.

It made her feel nauseated.

She made herself feel nauseated.

"I…I don't think that you're terrible." Said Minegishi choosing his words carefully. That girl may have been annoying as all else but she had still taken Suzuki down and lived to tell about it. She didn't have Suzuki's temper or temperament, or his worldview, and she was much nice than him too but she had her own idiosyncrasies. She was emotionally unstable, made terrible choices in life, and loved to dump her emotional instability and terrible life choices onto the feet of those she called her friends…

And it was better to stay he friend than anything else.

Also she could be kind of ok when she wanted to be. She thought about others, well him, a lot. She brought him snacks and drinks from the store sometimes when she was out, asked how he was, and even put together a nice care package for him a few days ago. Chocolate, pain killers, and napkins with cats on them for some reason. She could be very nice.

But she was also a teenage girl with teenage emotional and relationship problems.

"Thank you." Said Mob. Well that was nice of him, even if he didn't know the whole of what she had done, but it was still nice to know that she wasn't terrible. Even though she felt terrible. Terrible and terribly hungry. A growth spurt, probably. Mom had said, back when she still lived with her family, that she and Ritsu were eating them out of house and home. Mob knew, now, that mom hadn't meant it even though it felt like she had. Even though it made sense. Food was kind of expensive…kind of really expensive…and they had been going through a lot of it lately.

"Any time." Said Minegishi hoping that this was the end of it. Why that girl was filled with so much self-loathing he would never know. So she cheated on Serizawa, who wouldn't? Well probably people with better track records than Minegishi himself. The wholesome sort of people that he had always imagined her to be. She was still sweet and wholesome but she was also human and she knew that she could have anyone she wanted. That part made sense. Why she stayed with Serizawa after it all came out he did not know.

Not that it was any of his business.

And not that he really cared. She was the most powerful being on Earth, who knew how her mind worked?

"It's just…have you ever done anything bad? I mean I know you have but have you ever done anything bad, said sorry, than did it again? And also probably would do it again if you could? And also think about doing it again even though you know that you're not supposed to? Because it's wrong and you already said sorry and made a bunch of promises that you're supposed to keep but you can't but you have to so you tell lies and the lies make you feel sick, so sick that you could throw up? And then you always sort of feel like throwing all the time? And then-" said Mob. It all came out like word vomit, which was preferable to real vomit, which she also felt like could come out at any time. She was right, very right, to feel like she was going to throw up because she had done something truly disgusting and despicable.

"Who'd you fuck this time?" sighed Minegishi. What else could she be so twisted up over? Honestly. This kid was such a kid.

"W-what? I didn't! I mean we didn't this time! I mean I didn't go there planning on us-" said Mob. Minegishi was definitely her smartest friend. Probably because he was always reading books. Maybe reading books made him good at reading people.

"Spare me the details, please." Said Minegishi. Well then. Poor Serizawa, this would certainly send him back to his room…not that he knew, it seemed, because he had been usually chipper and chatty lately...…not that Minegishi was going to be telling him about this. No, he was not in any rush to go telling the details of that girl's sordid affairs to the guy she was…in love with? Minegishi didn't know how that girl really felt about him and that, also, was none of his business. Really all of this was none of his business but she was looking up at him with hope in her eyes like if she just confessed her since he could absolve her cheating heart of the mistakes that blackened it…

Or maybe she was just itching for her shift to end.

He knew he was.

"Ok. I won't tell you the details of what happened. I just think that I might be a bad person and I guess that I want someone to tell me that I'm not even though I know that I am." Said Mob

"And you want me to be that person to you because?" asked Minegishi

"You're very nice, and smart, and also my friend. Also you have more experience doing bad things than I do. Not to be mean! I meant, just, that you…do you ever feel like you're going to throw up?" asked Mob

"When I'm sick, yes, but not when I think about what I've done. I've made some mistakes, done some terrible things, but I don't believe in regrets. Regrets just slow you down. As far as I'm concerned there's no point, none at all, in moaning and groaning about every single terrible thing I've done in my past." Said Minegishi

"I wish I could be more like you…" said Mob

"No. You don't. You could not handle it, the things that I've done, just look at how you're going to pieces just because you can't stay away from that guy…Reigen?" said Minegishi

"Yes. Him. Master Reigen…but he says to just call him Reigen now. He says that he's not that man to me anymore." Said Mob

"You know, someone the thought of you calling that guy 'master' makes the whole thing even stranger." Said Minegishi

"He said that, too. I still wish that I could either stop doing bad things or stop feeling bad about doing bad things…but I can't. I feel bad all the time, so bad, that I always feel like I'm going to throw up. I'm always tired and nauseated and I'm eating a lot too. It might just be a growth spurt but maybe I'm just eating because I feel bad. Sometimes my mom hides in the laundry room and eats cookies when she's sad." Said Mob

"Or maybe you're just sick and you need to see a doctor. Just a thought. Maybe a doctor or a therapist, even. Or maybe you should just stop sleeping with men twice your age. Just a thought." Said Minegishi with a shrug.

"….I want to but I can't. To any of those things. I can't see a doctor because my mom still has my insurance card and if I go home to ask her for it then she'll ask me to come home, and I want to, but I can't because if I leave Serizawa then he'll live in his room and die without me and I also can't stop being his girlfriend for the same reason, also I love him, and I can't stop thinking about being with Master Reigen because I love him, too, even though he won't die without me-" said Mob

"Well then nothing to do but accept that this is your life now." Said Minegishi. She just wanted to be heard and validated. He didn't know how he was supposed to validate her when she was being so stupid. So very stupid. Break ups hurt, they always did, but it was clear that she was in over her head. She wanted to be with the other guy so she should have just been with the other guy. Minegishi knew that if someone put that on him, their entire wellbeing on being in a relationship with him, then he'd kick them to the curb. Who needed that in their life? Well, her, obviously.

"I…I guess so…" said Mob. Now she was being all sniffly. She was going to cry and she didn't know why. Well she did, because she was feeling terrible both emotionally and physically, and she did cry sometimes like when she was in the shower and finally, blissfully **alone** but…but why was she crying now!?

"Oh God….come here, come on, before someone comes in and sees you like this." said Minegishi. He offered her a hug. She threw herself into his arms and rested her head on his chest. He sighed and patted her on the head in a 'there, there' motion. He did not like having her that close. He could feel her aura and it gave him the instinctive feeling that he should have run away, far away, because if she wanted to she could crush him like a bug. Snuff him out like a weed…

But she was not Suzuki.

She would never have done anything like that to him. She was much too sweet, too nice, even if she was a serial cheater apparently. Also Suzuki would never have cried into his chest like that. He sighed. Plants were so much easier. Their needs were so much simpler. This, this friendship thing, it was messy enough with someone on his level but with this girl…it was a complete and utter disaster.

"You'll be ok…I guess. I mean Serizawa loves you so I guess he'll forgive you and…not break up I guess…or you can just come clean and tell him that you're incapable of being monogamous…or whatever. It's none of my business…" said Minegishi. The best advice he could have given her was not to play the game. That was why he never did the relationship thing. It was easier, and much less messy, to just be with someone when you wanted and to be able to leave them when you were done. Merging your life with someone else, marrying your fortunes together, that was messy business. Especially if you were fifteen and stupid.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…" said Mob. Minegishi smelled like dirt and plants and mulch and stuff, which was the way their job smelled, but somehow more…concentrated…and his aura was touching hers and this was all too much…and her stomach was being all rumbly and tumbly….

She was going to be sick.

"Not on me." Said Minegishi letting her go like she was on fire. Nope. As powerful as she was he was not going to let her throw up all over him. Everyone had a line and that was his. She took a step back and put her hands on her stomach.

"Turn that way. If you're going to throw up at least do it into the soil and not the flood…and you're cleaning up your own vomit. That is not in my job description." Said Minegishi. He watched in curiosity as her aura moved and turned and churned as she clutched her stomach. He had never been the best at reading auras, that was more Shimazaki's thing, but he got the feeling that her aura was not supposed to look like that….

"Wait, no, I'm not. I can make myself not throw up…if I try…there. Ok, I'm better now. Well not all the way better but I feel less sick." Said Mob. She did not want to throw up. It was a terrible feeling, being sick enough to throw up, and actually throwing up was worse. No. She could just make her stomach stay calm…

"Wouldn't it be easier to just, you know, vomit and get it over with?" asked Minegishi. He still watched her aura. It hadn't always looked like that…had it? He knew that it moved but it had always moved more…evenly…if that was the term. Now it was more…concentrated….and closer…if that made any sense…

"No. I hate throwing up, it's a really bad feeling. I'll be fine. I just…I just have to not think about what I've done and…and just move forwards...but also keep it a secret because Serizawa asked me to promise not to ever do that again…" said Mob. Well if she was going by exact words then she had just promised Serizawa that she would never sleep with Master Reigen again. That hadn't been sleeping with him per say…but she wasn't going to go by exact words…though thinking of it, the fact that she had made an exact promise, it made her feel better.

It didn't make her stomach feel any better, though.

"So there you go. Welcome to adulthood. Lots of mistakes, regrets, hard choices, and even harder outcomes." Said Minegishi with a shrug. She made her own problems. He felt for her…as much as he could…but she did make her own mistakes. She wanted to be an adult and this was what adulthood was. If he was going to be her friend, a true friend and not a sycophant, then he was going to tell her some of the hard truths.

Not all of them, he liked being alive, but some of them.

"….It sucks…"said Mob. She knew that she shouldn't have said it like that, it was rude, but it really did suck. She thought that being an adult meant that she would be able to do whatever she wanted. She knew, she thought that she known, exactly what she wanted but now she had no idea. She knew what she wanted and she knew what she had and she knew that she wanted what she had and also what she could not have and she knew that she could never have them both…she had tried that already…and now she knew that all of this only served to make her feel utterly terrible…like she was feeling now….

"Yes, yes it does, but it's still better than being a kid." Said Minegishi with a shrug. As many problems as adulthood brought with it he wouldn't trade it for another shot at being her age in a heartbeat. Not a good time for him…or for anyone.

"Yes, I guess, I mean when I was a kid I had a lot more rules to follow. I-I kind of miss those rules, though, not the part where my mom and dad bossed me around but the part where I guess…I didn't have to think about as much as I do now. Someone else was thinking about me and taking care of me…I mean Serizawa cares about me and says that he wants to take care of me but sometimes…sometimes I feel like I'm the one taking care of him…and it's hard sometimes. Being an adult is hard sometimes." Said Mob

"Yeah, it can suck but, hey, what can you do? Besides get back to work I mean. We really should get back to work and get off of all of this." said Minegishi. And now was the part of the day when she wanted a heart to heart talk. She wanted wisdom, someone to tell her what to do, and Minegishi did not want the responsibility of being that person to her. There was a reason that he had no plans of ever having kids of his own.

"Yeah….I guess. I guess that there's nothing that I can do but…but get back to work." Said Mob. Minegishi was smart, she decided to listen to him. It was easier to listen to other people than it was to listen to herself. She didn't think that she was the best at running her own life, anyway. Maybe she was just bad at being an adult. Maybe she should just do what the other adults did. Watch and learn and all of that.

So that was what she did.

The feeling in her stomach did not go away. In fact it got even worse he later it got in the day. It was absolutely unbearable by the time she got home. It hit her, actually, as she got off of the elevator. The whole floor smelled like cooking. Someone was cooking something with a lot of onions…

And it made her sick.

"You're home! I didn't know if you were bringing home dinner so I made us some-" said Serizawa from the kitchen. He was trying, really trying, for her. She had been sort of distant since the other night, the night after all of that with her family had happened. The night when he couldn't…and he still couldn't…and he didn't need Google to tell him that she had felt very rejected, then, though it had been helpful. That was why she had gone to the store in the middle of the night, because she felt rejected, and that had been awful. He needed to make an effort for her like she was making an effort for him.

Relationships took a lot of effort.

"Bathroom!" shouted Mob as she ran past him. She didn't even have time to face her shoes the right way as she entered, she just kicked them off and ran as fast as she could to the bathroom. She had tried to keep from throwing up but now her body just was not listening to her! She had barely gotten the toilet seat up and stuck her head in the bowl when her insides decided to become her outsides. Even the convenience store mixed fruit she had snacked on while she walked home came back up…and that was expensive…

There was an aura around hers and a strong hand on her back.

"Are you ok? Do you need some tea? I mean, that's what my mother made me when I got sick…are you sick? Or did you just eat something bad? Do you need me to get you something from the pharmacy? Or do you need to go to the hospital?" asked Serizawa. He rubbed her back and used his powers to get her hair out of her face. He tried to stay calm, he had to stay calm, but the rattling the filled the apartment betrayed him. She was sick. She could have been dying! People died from all sort of things! She could die of dehydration or starvation if she couldn't keep food down! Or maybe she was going to die of stomach cancer like his great aunt had! Or maybe-

No. She probably just has food poisoning. Calm down, Katsuya.

"I can't go…to the hospital….mom has my…insurance card…" said Mob after she was sure that she was done throwing up. It still smelled awful. She wished that the windows in their apartment opened. They didn't, not even a crack, and Mob was trapped in there with the onion smell that made her stomach churn…and also made her…hungry? Well of course she was hungry, she had just thrown up everything she had eaten and her stomach was empty.

"B-But you…you're…" said Serizawa rubbing her back. She looked like she was about to say something before she went back to throwing up. He made a sound between a squeak and a gasp, a truly odd sound, and went right back to rubbing her back. He wasn't sure if this was helping her at all but this was what his mother had done for him and he had always found it very comforting. That was what she needed, comfort, but also tea and medicine and toast and crackers and lemon juice and all of the other food sickness cures that he could remember.

"N-No…costs too much without….without the card thing…" said Mob after she finally finished throwing up. That had just been clean stuff. Great. Just great. Maybe there was no end to it. Maybe this was just her life now.

This was weird.

"Do you need to!?" asked Serizawa failing to stay calm. Insurance be damned if she needed the hospital then he was taking her to the fucking hospital! He didn't care how much it cost him, her life was priceless!

"No. I'll be fine. I think it was just because it smells so much like onions in here." Said Mob as she got up from the ground. Her back felt cold without his hand, there, and her aura felt lonely as he pulled his away from her. She went over to the sick and stuck her head under the tap to get a drink. She felt her hair being pulled back and heard the toilet flush.

He took good care of her.

And that was why she couldn't tell him the real reason she had been throwing up.

"I-I'm sorry! I was making curry from scratch, not from the cubes or the powder, and it's my mother's recipe, she says hi by the way, and there's a lot of onion in it and-and I didn't know that you disliked onions so badly. If I had known I never would h-have ma-made-" said Serizawa

"It's ok." Said Mob as she swished her mouth out with water. His apologizing was making it worse. He had nothing to apologize for! He had never done anything but love her and here she was, throwing up because she had been so terrible to him!

"I-I just wanted to make you something nice for dinner and my mom…well she called me and we got to talking and then I remembered how much I liked her curry and…and she said that she could give you the recipe so you could make it for-for me-" said Serizawa

"Really, it's fine." Said Mob

"B-But then I thought that it wouldn't be fair if-if I made you cook for me. I mean-mean you're always busy all the time and you work so har-hard at school and work and-and I just want to-" said Serizawa

"It's ok but can…can we go outside for a little bit? I don't…I don't feel so good..." said Mob after she finished having her water. At least she didn't taste that gross, throw up, taste anymore. That was good at least. The water just made her feel even sicker, though, and that made no sense because it was water. This wasn't good. She needed to be able to eat and drink to live…and the smell of onions had never made her sick before…

Maybe she needed to go to the doctor after all…

"S-Sure! Whatever you want!" said Serizawa. He reached across the apartment with his powers and turned off the stove. After a moment he remembered to move the pan to another burner so it would still be edible by the time they got back. She would be hungry, maybe, by then. He figured that she would have wanted to stay inside and ride this whole thing out but he would do whatever it was that she wanted…

And what she wanted, apparently, was going outside to get some air.

He held her hand the whole time. He didn't know where they had been walking towards but she knew, it seemed, and he followed her. He would follow her to the ends of the Earth if he could. Maybe it was wrong, being willing to follow someone like that, it hadn't gone so well the last time, but this was different. This was love. He loved her and he trusted her and…and he would gladly follow her wherever it was that she wanted to go.

Even if people were giving him all kinds of looks.

He still didn't get why. Well he knew why, it was the age thing, but he didn't get it. She wasn't that much…ok she was that much younger than him…but that didn't mean anything. She loved him and he loved her and love was all that mattered. Right? He had always thought so but…but now he was beginning to think differently. He loved her and she loved him but there was still the age thing and just because they didn't think that it mattered didn't mean that other people wouldn't feel the same way. It was weird, he knew that it was weird, but nothing about his life had exactly been normal up to this point. He knew that he shouldn't have cared what other people thought but…but maybe he should have if he was still planning on rejoining society…

He could never leave her.

But they were getting a lot of looks. He wanted to stop holding her hand, even, as they walked down the street. He didn't listen to that feeling, though, because she would have felt rejected. Also he wanted to hold her hand. He knew that he shouldn't have focused so much on that other people thought, being overly concerned with the thoughts of others wasn't a good way to be, but he had to at least care a little. That was why he had gotten back in the habit of showering every single as well as brushing his teeth and keeping his hair nice. There was a balance, Reigen had told him a while ago, between caring about what other people thought and being overly self-conscious…

He tried not to think of Reigen.

He had been trying not to think of Reigen for a while now. They had traded apologies and then nothing, nothing at all. Silence. Serizawa wondered if the ball was in his court, so to speak, but if it was he had no idea what sport they were even playing. It was like someone had tossed him a bowling ball and a baseball bat and told him that they were playing hockey. Social things were still so hard and the person he went to for help with all of this was the reason he felt like this in the first place!

So he tried not to think about Reigen.

Or the looks that he was getting. The looks got even worse as she led him into a convenience store. He assumed that she had gone in for medicine but she, instead, led him right to the prepared foods. He tried not to feel hurt, he had worked hard on dinner…he had even gone to the store by himself even though it was so hard and the world was so big and he was all alone in it without her and also he hadn't bagged his groceries fast enough…but he had gone through all of that for her and she wanted, instead, to eat…

Fruit?

Right. She had been throwing up. Was fruit good for that? He didn't know. All he knew was that she wanted fruit and he got her fruit because he wanted to make her happy. That was all he had ever wanted was her happiness. It hurt, though, because he had worked hard for her….he was always working hard for her…and she just…but she was sick and she suddenly didn't like onions and she had been throwing up and she couldn't control when she threw up and he had already forgiven her for the things that she could definitely control so he had might as well forgive her for the things that were definitely out of her control as well.

And he chose not to think about it.

Because, objectively, they were having a nice night. She ate her fruit, fruit salad and an entire grapefruit, in the park under the stars just the two of them. She even let him have some even though fruit was in no way a substantial enough meal for one, let alone two. Not that he said anything about that, either. No, he wouldn't. He would just enjoy his time with her. Mob. Shigeko.

His girlfriend.

The light of his life. Even though she could hurt him she was still the light of his life and he would do anything for her. That was love, the real and true kind of love, the kind of love that he felt for her. Shigeko. Mob. His girlfriend who he loved and who loved him and who hadn't been trying to hurt him. Not ever. Not even when she…not even then. She hadn't been thinking of him, then, and she had said so…and that hurt even more than if she had been spiting him…

Stop thinking about it, Katsuya, and just have a nice night already.

So he did. So they did. They had a nice night together and a nice morning and he knew that those nights and mornings would repeat over and over again each one nicer than the one before it because he had her and she had him and it was all just so nice. So perfect. So wonderful. Such a good night and such a good morning.

Mob's mornings were terrible.

And her afternoon would be even worse. The feeling in her stomach was back. How she could simultaneously be ravenous and nauseated she did not know. All she knew was that she ate enough for two people at lunch and then was sick enough for two people at gym class and then for three people at body improvement club. She was so sick that she took a sick day from work, not a good move if Serizawa's mountains of work etiquette books were to be believed, but better to take a sick day and maybe another than to infect everyone she came into contact with at work with whatever it was that she had.

The internet had not been helpful.

She could either have a stomach bug, a gluten intolerance, a lactose intolerance, cancer, typhus, or diphtheria. The internet also said that if symptoms persisted for more than twenty four hours she needed to consult a doctor. Even if consulting a doctor meant that she needed her insurance card and even if getting her insurance card meant going home…to her family's house…where she used to live…where her family still lived…

At least mom said that she was done yelling.

"Ritsu! Bring in the mail!" called mom as Mob opened the door. Her key still worked, she didn't know why she had expected it not to, but it was nice that it still worked. She…it felt nice, being back home, even though she knew that she wouldn't have been there for long. If mom and dad hadn't been home Mob would have just gone into the folder with important stuff they kept in their room and gotten her insurance card. But mom was home.

Mob got the mail even though she wasn't Ritsu.

"Shige…you're home…" said Mom. She was sitting at the table with her laptop and a pile of papers that Mob didn't know the purpose of but seemed very important. Lots of numbers on them. Mom had brought her work home with her. That was what adults did, they worked, and Mob was being a terrible adult by taking a sick day.

"Hi mom…here's the mail. I'm not Ritsu but I got it any way but I can put it pack if you want him to be the one to get it for you." Said Mob

"N-No…I'll take it. Thank you…Shigeko." Said mom. She took the mail but didn't look through it, maybe because it was mostly junk mail from what Mob could see.

"Are you…are you staying?" asked Mom after a while. Mob shook her head. She couldn't stay. Serizawa had been without her for the entire day. He probably missed her a lot. She missed him, too, but she knew that she didn't miss him as much as he missed her.

"No. I just need my insurance card so I can go to the doctor." Said Mob. Mom got to her feet immediately and put her forehead to Mob's head. She didn't know why moms always did that. They had an ear thermometer and a tongue one, too. Maybe moms just had special temperature sensing powers. Maybe she'd get them when she and Serizawa had a baby.

She'd rather just stick with the powers that she already had.

"You don't have a fever…but you are very pale…" said mom. Mob nodded. Her eyes weren't resting on mom, though, but on the bowl of fruit on the table. There were oranges, there, and grapefruits. Thank God Sho wasn't there or he would have tried to have it out with her over their differing opinions on citrus fruits.

"I don't have a fever, mom, my stomach just hurts a lot and I'm always hungry, too, at the same time…" said Mob. Her mom made a weird gasping sort of sound and then put her hand squarely over Mob's stomach. Her eyes were weird, too, really wide and kind of like she was mad…or maybe scared…or maybe both at the same time. Mob hadn't seen her mom look like that since that terrible day when she had lost control and accidentally hurt Ritsu.

"And that why I need to go to the doctor. It hurts all the time and I thought that it was because I've been…bothered…lately but now I think that maybe I'm sick. I think that I might be sick because I threw up a lot yesterday and I don't know why. Before I could stop myself from throwing up but then I came home and everything smelled like onions and then I just got really sick." Said Mob. Mom still wasn't saying anything, she was just standing there with her hand on Mob's stomach and looking like a weird mixture of afraid and scared. It was making Mob feel a little bit afraid and scared, too, and she could feel her hair start to float. Mom's was floating, too, and so were the papers on the table.

Mob put everything down as best as she could.

This seemed to snap mom out of it. She pulled her hand away really fast and clasped her hands together. She was breathing funny and looking at mom like…like she was afraid. Mob didn't blame her. The room still had dents and scraped paint and missing pictures and knickknacks from when she and Ritsu had lost control and had their great, big, fight.

"Shigeko….were you telling the truth when you said that you took a pregnancy test before?" asked mom in a quiet sort of way, so quiet that Mob hadn't been sure that her mom had even spoken at first until the question was repeated again, only that time much louder.

"Yes. I drank a lot of water and took a test and waited five minutes. It said that I wasn't pregnant." Said Mob. She didn't know what that had to do with this. She had already taken the test and it said negative and she hadn't had sex since then so, of course, she couldn't be pregnant.

"How much water?" asked mom

"Huh?" asked Mob

"How much water did you drink? Shigeko, those tests aren't…I know you probably got the cheapest one you could find-" said mom

"I did." Said Mob though now she wished that she hadn't. Mom had a tone, there, and she wasn't the best at reading tones but she knew that mom was upset with her. Great. Just great. Another thing to be worried about.

"Shige…Shigeko, never cheap out on these things…and don't drink a lot of water right before, either. That makes it diluted…and those cheap tests aren't reliable." Said mom

"But it said that I wasn't pregnant. Why would they sell a test that doesn't work?" asked Mob

"Because you're fifteen! Sorry, I'm sorry Shigeko….I know that yelling gets me nowhere with you. Shigeko, you're fifteen years old and you don't fully know how these things work. When you drink a lot of water the pregnancy hormones get diluted…if it was even late enough for the test to register…or early enough. If you wait too long you can get a false negative too…and if you want proof of that, well, you aren't an only child now are you?" said mom

"Wait, so I could….what? Mom, please don't mess with me. Why are you messing with me?" asked Mob. Mom shook her head and did that thing where her lips got really thin like she was sucking on a lemon…which sounded pretty good right about then, actually…..

"Shigeko I am not messing with you. These are things that…that I suppose I should have taught you…that I thought I had time to teach you…oh God….this is not happening…" said mom

"Mom…you're making me worried…" said Mob. No…no way. She could not have a baby. She was just all worried and worked up because of what she had done. That was all. She was just making herself sick from the stress of it all. That was all. Nothing more and nothing less. She pressed down on her stomach. If she were pregnant it would have been bigger and rounder. She would have noticed something like that!

"Shigeko…I'm the one who's worried. You…I'm trying my hardest not to yell at you. I'm trying my hardest not to panic. I am making an effort to-" said Hana. She had failed her child in every single way in which a mother possibly could and now she was paying the price. A grandmother at not even fifty. Her mother was still alive. Her mother's mother was still alive! Well, if you could call that living….and Hana was going that route herself very soon! This was enough stress to give her a stroke and send her to the same care facility as her grandmother! How could….why would…..

This was too much.

But she had to remain calm or her daughter would walk right out that door and never speak to her again.

"You don't have to! I mean….I'm just worried because…because I did a very bad thing…and it's been eating me up inside and that's why I've been sick lately, probably, and also why I've been so hungry lately, too." Said Mob

"What could you have possibly done, Shigeko, that's worse than what's already happened?" asked Hana dismissively. She had been dismissive because she had to be. She could not even begin to fathom anything worse than the situation that they were facing. Her daughter was pregnant with a manchild's child…ok, he was a nice man but he was thirty one! And he didn't' work! And Shigeko had more education than he did! What could possibly be worse than the crisis that they were facing right at that moment?!

"I…I did something bad. I did something so bad…and then I did it again after I promised that I would never do it again but I still did it…and I know that I shouldn't have and I know that it was wrong, both times I knew that it was wrong…but I still did it and I'm afraid that I'll do it again and I have no reason to do it aside from that fact that I…I want to really badly…but I know that I shouldn't-" said Mob trying to tell her mom without, actually, telling her mom. Not that mom still had the power to command and punish her, she was an adult now, but mom still could be mad at her and ashamed of her and disappointed in her…

"Out with it, Shigeko! Just get on with it because whatever you've done it can't possibly hold a candle to the situation we are in right now!" said Hana losing her temper. She couldn't help it. Things just kept on going from bad to worse and just when she thought that they were done they went from worse to terrible! The universe seemed to take it as a personal challenge to heap as much hardship onto her shoulders as it could! First one of her children has powers, then both do, and now all of this!

"Did you ever cheat on dad?" asked Mob suddenly. She didn't know what else she could say. Well not that, she should have thought about something other than that, because that was something that she did not want to know about her parents' marriage at all. Nope. Sot at all. She could have lived a long life without knowing that about her mom and dad.

"What? No, of course I haven't, Shigeko, and what does that have to do with….oh." said Hana. Well then. This was…good…actually. A boy her own age. Shigeko acting her age. Shigeko acting her age with a boy her own age…at least Hana hoped to whatever God that was out there that it had been with a boy her own age.

"I…I did something bad…I cheated on Serizawa even though he loves me and he forgave me but then I did it again and I've been feeling really bad but I can't tell him because he was really sad before the first time I did it and then he said that he'd forgive me if I said that I would never do it again but then I did…I didn't go him to do that but we still did and ever since I've been feeling really, really, really bad and I don't know what I'm supposed to do and it's just so much!" said Mob. She was trying her hardest to keep things from floating and the house from shaking. She was shaking. Her stomach hurt even worse now and she…she didn't know what she was supposed to do….

"Shigeko….these things happen. You're not ready for all of this but…but you can learn from this and-" said Hana. Well this maybe this would be the thing that got her daughter back home where she belonged. Shigeko wasn't the first person to ever find herself in this predicament and she was not going to be the last. This was…a bump in the road of life…and it could be smoothed over. Yes. This situation could be fixed and then…and then they would all just pretend like this little ordeal had never happened. Shigeko would come back home and go to school and spend time with her friends and work for that nice man again just like it had all been before all of this. Yes, everything would go right back to the way it was supposed to be.

"I don't know why I keep on hurting him. I love him and he loves me but I keep on hurting him." said Mob softly. She was then pulled into her mother's arms.

"Love isn't everything, Shigeko. Love is…it can be complicated. It can be…hard recognize. Sometimes what we think is love is something else like…dependence or desire…and it's hard. You're only fifteen and you're still learning…and I'm sorry that your lesson had to be such a hard one…but things can go back to the way that they were before-" said Hana

"How? How can things ever go back? I…I did something terrible. I did it twice, even." Said Mob

"Because time will pass and this will all be…be a difficult chapter in your life, that's all." Said Hana smoothing down her daughter's hair and holding her close. It hurt, being so near her, feeling the crackle of the energy around her, but this was her child and she was not going to push her away again.

"But it's not…I don't think that it'll ever pass. I wish that I had never done any of this. I wish that I had never even confessed to Master Reigen in the first place." Said Mob softly. She said it so softly that she was saying it mostly to herself. She wished that she had never started this thing. If she hadn't, if she had just…just kept it inside until she was an adult…then none of this would have happened.

"What? Shige…what did you just say?" asked Hana. She needed to have her hearing tested, she was getting up there in years after all, because she could have sworn that she had just heard Shigeko say that she had confessed to the man that she had worked or since she was eleven years old.

"I…I confessed to Master Reigen and then he said no to me so I…that's how me and Serizawa got together." Said Mob

"Oh. Well that's…that's ok…" said Hana. He had turned her down. That was fine. Shigeko had embarrassed herself and gotten herself rejected, as she should have been since her boss was a grown MAN, and then she had started a rebound relationship with the manchild she was seeing now. Ok then.

"But he meant yes but I didn't know that he meant yes and then I slept with him and it was so perfect but then it wasn't and then he and Serizawa got into a great big fight and Serizawa and I got into a great big fight and there was just a lot of fighting and I don't want there to be any more fighting and then Serizawa got really depressed and he wouldn't go outside but then he would but then you said that Master Reigen was the one who told on me and I was just SO MAD so I went to his house even though I knew that it was a bad idea and then we…we didn't sleep together but…but we still did some stuff that I knew was wrong and now I feel like this and-" said Mob

"Reigen…Reigen the man you work for? You slept with him, too?" asked Hana. That was not a common name at all…but maybe it was. She prayed that it was. That man…she had trusted him with her CHILD! And that was what Shigeko was, a CHILD! A goddamned mother fucking CHILD! How could she have just left her daughter with that man?! How could she have been so naïve?! How could-

"Yes. That Reigen. Reigen Arataka." Said Mob softly. Mom was staring at her again. She was pale, so pale that Mob could have sworn that she could see the blue of her veins.

"Shigeko….mommy needs…mommy needs…" said Hana. She needed a time machine. She needed a car door to slam her head in. She needed a plastic bag to tape over her head. She needed a ride to the nearest bridge so she could throw herself off of it. She needed a glass of cyanide. She needed-

She needed a drink.

She needed a drink more at that moment than she had ever had in her entire life.

So she went to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a cup of sake. The bottle said that it was supposed to be served warm but she didn't care. She just needed alcohol in her system. She just needed to kill a few brain cells. It wasn't like she had been using them, anyway, since she had let her daughter get into this predicament.

"Mom….?" Asked Mob as her mom stopped drinking sake from a cup and drank straight from the bottle. She knew that her mom drank, she had seen both of her parents drinking before, but mom had never drank like that. She was drinking like she had been walking through the desert for days and days and hadn't seen water in all that time.

Sake was not water.

"Shigeko…let's get you that insurance card, ok? And then we'll make you an appointment with a doctor and then we'll…we'll get this whole thing sorted out." Said Hana. It was hitting her fast, too fast, probably because she had been drinking like a university student. Well what else could she do? Her daughter's life was, had been for some time, spiraling out of control.

And she had let it.

"But…but what about what I did…?" asked Mob. She at least expected mom to say that she was disappointed in her. That was what moms did. They told you when you had disappointed them and Mob knew that she had been behaving terribly lately. She was disappointed in herself. Of course mom would have been disappointed in her.

"Shigeko….I honestly have no idea." Said Hana. She meant it. It was so freeing to be able to just say it. She had no clue what she was supposed to do in this situation besides get her daughter to a doctor. Hana couldn't punish her, yelling would do nothing, and there was no reasoning with a fifteen year old girl who thought she was in love. So, really, there was nothing at all that she could possibly do.

"Oh…ok…" said Mob. Well that did not inspire confidence at all. Maybe this was what it was to be an adult. Your mom couldn't get you out of messes anymore. You had to get yourself out of messes. You. Because when you were an adult you were responsible for your own actions. She was an adult now and she was responsible for her own actions…

And she had been acting very poorly lately.

So she decided to take responsibility for her actions…and the first step was telling Serizawa what she had done. So that was what she did when she got home. She just…told him. She told him everything that happened even though she really didn't want to. She didn't want to tell him but she didn't want to keep it inside anymore.

And if he broke up with her then so be it.

Because it was a lot. She loved him, she did, but she was still terrible for what she had done…and maybe part of her wanted him to tell her that she was terrible, too. Maybe part of her wanted him to yell at her and to tell her to get out of his house and out of his life and then she could be with the person she had wanted to be with for so long…and he still would have had her…

She still loved Master Reigen and Master Reigen still loved her.

But Serizawa loved her too. He said that he did. He yelled at her, yes, and he cried at her but through all of it he kept on assuring her that he still loved her. He loved her and he would always love her. He would be better for her, he would do better for her, and he would always be there for her. There was nothing in the world that would ever make him stop loving her.

Even though it made no sense.

Love made no sense. Feeling it, not feeling it, feeling it for one person, feeling it for two…none of it made any sense whatsoever. She loved him and she wanted him to stop loving her. He loved her and he never stopped wanting to love her. So they were at an impasse. Not that she told him that she wanted him to stop loving her…not in so many words, anyway.

"Please…please just make me go away so I can't hurt you anymore." That was what she had said. She knew that she would just keep on hurting herself and him again and again and again. He said that he loved her. He said that he didn't care. He said that no matter what happened he would always love her. Then he cried some more. Then he stopped. Then he cried again.

And they went round and round like that for a while.

And the whole time Mob had no idea what she was supposed to do next…besides got to the doctor…but in the wake of the atom bomb she just dropped on their relationship she could barely even muster up…anything….on the subject of her pending doctor's appointment. It seemed as though there was no point to worrying about it. Pregnant or not the outcome of her life would still be the same.

No matter what she did she would always be his.

And she had no idea how to feel about that.


	29. Conclusion 1: Ten Years Gone By

Reigen hadn't spoken to either Mob or Serizawa in ten years.

Over ten years, actually, but he wasn't counting. The first couple of years had been the hardest, losing his best friend and the love of his life, but he had gotten….to something approximating better. He got a stable job, that he hated, and he cut back on his drinking, not totally of course because he was still only human, and he even had a girlfriend for a short amount of time.

Things had gotten a little better.

It was better, that way, not seeing Mob. The pain had faded, dulled, but not vanished. It couldn't ever vanish completely. Nothing would ever get rid of the pain he felt when he thought of her, and he couldn't help but think of her. She was in everything. A girl with long black hair. Warm ramen after a long day's work. A cool glass of milk. Incense. Green tea. Long socks. Smiles.

A smile, a little smile but one with all the feeling in the world behind…he hadn't seen that smile in years.

Over a decade.

He had spent more time away from her than with her but still she held her heart in his hands. That was what it was, what it had always been about, love. What had led to their ruin, what had destroyed their relationship, that word. Love. He didn't even know what it meant, anymore. Love was…it was the thing that made you…

Beat up your best friend.

Sleep with a girl half your age.

Send your best friend into a depressive spiral.

Make it worse by continuing to aid in said best friend's teenage girl's infidelity.

He was a terrible human being and he had spent the past ten or so years trying to make a better life for himself. He apologized and left it at that…Serizawa didn't need him in his life. That was why he never contacted Mob again, either, despite the fact that he would have given anything to hear her voice again. He couldn't. He knew how it would have ended if he and Mob had been together again, alone, even for a moment. What he wanted from her. What she wanted from him. They could have had…they could have had everything…

But she had pushed him away.

But he had pushed her away.

He had seen her, briefly, years ago. She had been sitting on a train. By some cruel stroke of fate they had ended up in the same train car. He had been heading out of town to pay his mother a much overdue visit. He had no idea why she had also been taking a train out of town. He hadn't asked her. All he could do was stare at her as she sat down and read her manga. He couldn't remember what she had been reading or wearing or anything beyond the fact that she had been there, just sitting, like this was all normal. Like she was just going about her normal life like nothing had happened….like she hadn't even…

Like she hadn't even known him. Like he was just another face in the crowd. Like he had just been…nobody. Nobody and nothing to her when he had once been her everything. When she had once called him her everything. When she had told him that she loved him, that she had always loved him and always would, that nothing mattered but her love for him. She had been ready to give herself to him, had given herself to him, and then everything went to shit…

She didn't care.

She hadn't noticed him.

Her nose was buried in a manga book. She wasn't paying attention to anyone, not Reigen and not even Serizawa. He had been there, too, standing in front of her. The train was packed. If there had been a fire or a derailing then they all would have surely died. Then she would have had to exorcise him. He wanted her to exorcise him from existence. From this world and whatever world came after. He didn't know which hurt more, seeing her or seeing who she had been travelling with.

Serizawa.

The train had been packed and he had been standing in front of her protectively. Reigen had no idea what he had been protecting her from, maybe he had seen Reigen, maybe he had been protecting his girlfriend from the guy she had been fucking on the side. His ex best friend. The man he had risked his life for, betrayed the organization that he had given everything to for, the man who had fucked his girlfriend…twice.

He likes that word, fuck.

Fuck is something base, something sordid, something that is lightyears away from what he and Mob had. For over a decade he's been trying to rewrite history in his mind. Trying to take the most beautiful thing he had ever had in his life and reducing it to what it, objectively, was. A grown man fucking the teenage girl he had known since she had been in elementary school. If he had can make himself feel bad about what he had done, feel disgusted with himself for what he had allowed to happen, what he had made happen, then some of the pain in his heart may have settled elsewhere.

But it didn't.

It increased a thousand fold that day. It had been weeks, months, since he had seen her last and there she had been. He thought about talking to her, texting her, going up to her and asking her…asking her if she was ok. Asking her why she had chosen Serizawa of all people. Asking her if he had ever entered her thoughts in the time they had been apart. As she sat there, the longer she sat there, and the longer she sat there without paying him any mind he began to feel more and more personally rejected.

Because she had rejected him.

But he still wanted to talk to her. To be with her. To hear her say something to him, anything, But she hadn't said a single word, hadn't even noticed him. Neither of them had. What would Serizawa have done? Nothing good if he knew exactly what he and Mob had gotten up to. The first time had not been on him. He had been truthful, for once in his life, when he said that he'd had no idea that Serizawa and Mob were a thing. There was no excuse for the second time. None. Serizawa probably didn't know about the second time. There was no way that he would have taken Mob back had he known the extent of her…of their infidelity. There was no way he would have been able to be out and about in the world if he knew just how badly Mob had hurt him. If he knew how badly Reigen had hurt him…or maybe not.

Serizawa forgave Mob the first time, after all.

And he hadn't said anything beyond their initial apology. Nothing. Not that Reigen had tried to reach out, either, because he couldn't. Not after what happened. Not after he had…not after what happened. So they just stopped talking and Reigen wanted them to talk, to exchange any words at all, but he couldn't. Not over the phone and certainly not on the slow train out of town where they'd be trapped together in the awkward mess that he and Mob had made for hours and hours and hours…

At the first stop Reigen got off as fast as he could and jumped on another, even more crowded, car.

And that was the last time he had seen either of them. It had been a decade and then some since he had last seen either of them, Mob or Serizawa, even from a distance. He had been avoiding them, maybe, or maybe they had been avoiding each other. He moved to the other side of town, he never did end up going back to that office, and he found another job that kept him on the other side of town where he belonged. He stayed away from any place at all that he had even the slightest chance of running into them…and it mostly worked…

Mostly.

He hadn't run into Mob, or Serizawa, but instead into two other people on his list of people to avoid. Mob's little brother and his boyfriend. He hadn't set out to run into them, he had just stopped in a random convenience store on his way home from work, and there they were. Words, once again, were not exchanged. For once in his life he didn't have any. He knew that the Kageyama's knew about him and Mob, her mother had given him a nice big scar through one of his eyebrows with her ring hand one day while she screamed at him about messing around with Mob, and he did not want to get beaten up or worse by her brother. Maybe not his boyfriend, Sho was a nice kid, but Mob's little brother definitely would have beaten him up.

So he high tailed it out of there before they noticed him. They hadn't, thank God, because they had been otherwise occupied. It had taken Reigen two blocks of fast walking before it dawned on him. He had seen those two in the baby and toddle aisle…and they had been pushing a strolled. The thought, the fear, exploded like a thunderbolt in his mind. Mob's little brother and her boyfriend had been pushing a STROLLER….

So unless Reigen was really confused about human reproduction…

Mob had said that she wasn't pregnant the last time he had seen her…but she had gone back to Serizawa…but she was just fifteen…so Reigen was thinking crazy people thoughts. Those were the thoughts of a man being driven mad from heartache. Obviously Mob hadn't had a baby, she was smarter than that, so that was obviously….Mrs. Kageyama had another baby? Or maybe Sho's mysterious mother who Reigen had never seen but knew from Sho's many rants back when he'd follow Serizawa to work just so he had someone to listen to him rant and rave about his mother and her rules and her boyfriend and all of that.

Mob hadn't had a baby.

The thought was insane. Mob was fifteen and she was smarter than that. She didn't have big goals, she didn't want to rule the world or cure cancer or create a diet soda that didn't give you a headache but she must have wanted more out of life than having Serizawa Katsuya's children. Right…? There must have been something else she wanted…

Not him.

And it wasn't like he could just come out and ask her. He couldn't ask her if she was pregnant or if she wanted to be with him or with Serizawa. It wasn't the sort of thought, Mob related thought, that popped into his mind anyway. He mostly just missed her smiles, her soft presence, the fact that there had been someone in the world who loved him…

He had messed it up.

She had messed it up.

It was messed up and, after a while, he came to the realization that he had to get on with his life. Much like the same epiphany he had while puking his brains out on his twenty-eighth birthday he realized that his life was not what it should have been. So he decided to change. He moved and got another job that paid decent and didn't make him want to throw himself in front of the train every night and even met a woman and even stuck around for more than one night…

It had ended.

She said that he was still hung up on his ex.

But it had been good for him to get out there. He didn't much feel like repeating that, it hadn't been a good break up, but it had been good for him as a person. Helped him, for a time, get the idea of Mob away from the forefront of his mind for a time…and it also solidified in his mind that he was not made for relationships. So that was how he found himself pushing forty, single, and working a job that made him enough money to live decently on.

It was the best he could have asked for.

Even if his mother still rode him about being all alone, not making enough money, and hardly ever coming to visit. His ears were still sore from her last ear splitting lecture and he could not wait to get back home and just smoke and drink, a little, and let the day wash away. It was always taxing, visiting with his mother, and not just because she was one of the great monologists of Japan. Getting there and getting back was taxing, too.

Maybe he should have just called a cab.

It had to be better than taking a train to another train to a bus.

"Hey! Hey you!" A kid was shouting. A taxi, while expensive, would have had fewer children. He didn't mind them, not really, but he didn't much want to be around them, either. Not since Mob, anyway, but that was more why he avoided teenagers. He did not like the fact that he had fallen in love with a teenage girl and he did not ever want to repeat that. No. That was something that he would take to his grave and beyond.

That wasn't a girl calling after him.

"Hey! You really should stop! It's important! Hey!" The kid was still calling after him. Reigen remembered the last time a kid had sought him out and he did not want that again. He did not want to be Master to any kid ever again. That was stupid. To think that this would be a repeat of what happened with Mob…but Reigen had a bus to catch. A train to a train to the bus. That was the commute from mom's house a city away. It was a long commute and it would only be made longer if he stopped.

"There's a curse stuck to your back! Hey!" that made Reigen stop. He stopped in his tracks just as he got to the bus station. Well a curse stuck to his back was an entirely different story. A curse stuck to his back could have explained everything from his failures in his romantic and personal life to his stagnant career to his mother's disproval in literally every single part of his life.

"Thanks for stopping." Said the kid. Reigen didn't turn to face him, not for a moment, not until he could convince himself that this was not Mob. This was not going to be a repeat of Mob. This was…another esper kid. Not Mob. This was a guy, for one thing, and he didn't sound a thing like Mob. Mob had always had a monotone to her…what he wouldn't have given to hear her monotone again….and this kid was not Mob.

He took a deep breath.

And turned to face the kid.

Well he would have if the kid hadn't jumped right in front of him. Reigen took a step back, he told himself that it was from surprise, because this was very surprising. Not just the fact that the kid had jumped, literally, in front of him but because the kid…the kid looked exactly like Mob. Mob when he first met her. That thick black hair, that impossibly pale skin, even the bowl but, though this kid's hair was a lot shorter. It stood up more, too, not like Mob's. Her hair had always hung straight down but this kid looked like he had just dragged his feet across a stadium's worth of wool carpets and then rubbed a balloon on his head.

And his eyes were blue.

Mob had brown eyes. Her eyes were a very common shade of brown but they were hers. This kid had bright blue eyes. Mob's had always been dull, like she was seeing everything at once and she found it wanting, but this kid…his eyes were alert, alive, and darted everywhere. It was like he was sizing Reigen up while he was being sized up himself. He rocked back and forth in his white gym shoes. There was what looked like powdered sugar on his jeans and T-shirt. Evangelion, if Reigen remembered right.

Reigen wondered how he must have looked to the kid in his rumpled grey suit and pink tie dulled from about fifteen years of over washing. This kid looked like a kid. Reigen looked like a kid playing at being an adult. At least that was how he felt every single day of his life.

"Hi! Thanks, again, for stopping! Sorry to bother you but there's a curse stuck to your back and it looks really gross so I'm going to try and get rid of it. So hold really still, ok?" asked the kid. He was still rocking on his heels. He narrowed his eyes and bit his lower lip.

"Ok...you can do this…" said the kid to himself as he felt his backpack straps and stared at Reigen with a look of determination. Reigen wondered, for a moment, if the kid knew what he was doing. He may have looked like Mob, something that he was trying not to unpack, but he may not have been anywhere near Mob's level. Mob was…she had saved the world…she had gotten rid of that big broccoli tree…she had done so many amazing things in the time that he had known her and…and that kid may have looked like her but…but there was no guarantee that he WAS hers…he couldn't have been. Mob was…not even thirty yet, this kid was at least ten years old. This was not Mob's kid. This was not Mob's kid and he-he-he just looked like her. That was all. That was…he was….it was just a resemblance…

That was the baby he had seen all of those years ago.

The new Kageyama baby. The little brother. Another little brother. That was all.

"You've got this, kid. I trust you." Said Reigen. It made sense, that her parents would have had another esper baby, since both Mob and her little brother had inherited that gift. That explained why he looked so much like her…and why history was trying it's hardest to repeat itself it seemed. Another little esper kid unsure of their powers coming to him..

History was not going to repeat its self.

"I know I've got this, I mean I think I've got this, but I just don't want to hurt you on accident, that's all.." Said the kid as he took in a deep breath. Reigen held still as he felt the familiar feeling of an aura settling in around him. Familiar. So very familiar…

Had it really been over a decade?

"Ok, it's gone now, at least I think that I got all of it. My mom's better at this than I am but I don't see anything else. Anyway, I've got to go now, it was nice meeting you. I'm Shigeo by the way." said the kid. He bowed deeply before turning to leave.

Reigen couldn't let him.

Not with the word 'mom' hanging in the air around them. Mom. He knew Mrs. Kageyama well enough to know that she was not an esper. If she had even the slightest bit of psychic power to her she would have used her powers to kill Reigen all those years ago. This kid…he just looked a lot like Mob. That was all. It was quirk of genetics or fate or whatever that led this kid to look like Mob only male and with blue eyes. That was all. Mob couldn't have been…Mob wouldn't have…

"Wait!" said Reigen as the kid started to go back the way he came. He knew how bad it looked, a man his age stopping a kid his age in the streets, but he had to know. He had to know because…well he had no idea what he was going to do with the information but he just had to know…to know if this kid was Mob's…

"What's up? Do you still feel cursed? Sometimes when I hold back, I was holding back before, I don't get rid of the curse all the way. That's because I didn't want to hurt you on accident. Mom says that I'm not supposed to use my powers on other people but I think that it's ok to help people as long as they're cursed or something. Dad says that I should be careful and stuff but he's always saying that I should be careful like I'm not careful all the time! But he's all 'be careful, Shigeo' and I'm all 'I'm always careful, dad' and then he's always all-" said the kid going a mile a minute. Reigen tried to get a word in edgewise but the kid was not having it.

Reigen was amazed by the kid's lung capacity and stamina as he plowed through what must have been a very daunting monologue. He paced as he spoke, gestured more often than was necessary, and seemed unconcerned with the fact that he was spilling the details of his life to a complete stranger.

Over the course of approximately two minutes Reigen learned a few things.

The kid was named Shigeo, he was almost eleven, he was coming back from his grandmother's house, his parents didn't get a long, and he had a little sister and a mom and he had ditched both of them at the train station to follow Reigen around because he saw the curse on his back.

Reigen let the kid talk.

He may have looked like Mob but he was nothing like Mob. He knew that he should have told the kid to shut up and go back to his mom and sister, that he shouldn't have been talking to strange kids in the first place, that he had nothing to gain by listening to this strange kid rant and rave about his life, but he…he wanted to.

This kid.

This familiarly, unfamiliar, kid.

With the familiarly unfamiliar blue eyes.

He knew those eyes. He thought that he did, anyway, but he didn't want to believe it. There were only so many shades of blue, probably, in the entire world so of course there would have been some overlap between his shade of blue and the shades of blue of others, even esper kids that stopped him in the streets to remove curses and complain about annoying sisters, divorcing parents, and long train trips. There must have only been so many eye shapes, too, as well as eye colors. He wasn't the only person in Japan with unhooded almond shaped eyes. There were billions of people on this planet and, of course, some of them were bound to look a little bit like him. Hell, maybe the kid didn't look a thing like him. His eyesight wasn't what it used to be, reading was getting harder and harder, so maybe he was just getting old. Yes. His eyes were going and his mind was going and since he was pushing forty it was all down hill from here.

That was preferable to where his mind was going.

It was a coincidence.

That was all.

"…so then my mom said-" said the kid, Shigeo apparently. Shigeo. Shigeko. Heh. Mob had never been the most creative person in the world but that…why? If Reigen had a kid he wouldn't name the kid something that close to his own name. He liked Ai or Akira or something with an 'A' sound…but not Arataki or something like that because he was more creative than that. Not that he had any kids. Not that he had any plans to have any kids. He was forty now, thereabouts, and he didn't have or want a girlfriend…

And he hadn't given a crazy amount of thought to having a kid. Not really.

The thought is still terrifying even after all these years.

"Shigeo! You know not to…wander….off….like…that…" said a voice that Reigen hadn't heard in so many years…ten years…ten years gone. More than that. But he still knew that voice. It had gotten a little deeper, just a little, but he could have recognized her voice no matter how many years had gone by.

Mob.

There she was. He turned to face her. It took a moment for his feet to listen but he turned to face her…and he recognized her. Her hair was shorter, she had grown a few centimeters, and there was a child clinging to her hand…but that was Mob. His Mob. It was like she had bene transported, transmuted, ten years into the future. Present. He had seen her in his mind as she was the last time he had seen her, fifteen, but she wasn't fifteen now. She was twenty six if his math was right. Older.

Older than she had been.

"Master….I mean Reigen….Reigen Arataka…hi." Said Mob. She looked at him like…like he didn't know what. Like she was afraid. Like she was angry. Like she was excited. Like every emotion that she had ever felt in her life was dancing behind her eyes. Her face was flat, motionless, emotionless, but her eyes told the whole story.

"You know my mom? How do you know my mom? I know everyone my mom knows! Like, is she secretly superhero or something and, like-" said Shigeo

"Shige! Don't talk to strangers!" said the little girl. Reigen barely heard the kids, no, everything sounded like it was far away and under water. Mob was there. Mob. He was seeing her after all these years…and she was speaking to him…

Say. Something.

Make. Words.

"He's not a stranger, he was cursed and I helped him! You don't get to tell me what to do anyway, Yuzuko, I'm older than you!" said the kid. Reigen wasn't really listening, he was too busy looking at Mob. Staring at her. Probably creepily. She was there. She was there and she had spoken to him and she…she was still so beautiful…

God. She was still so perfect.

"H-hey Mob….how've you been?" asked Reigen finding some words. The kids…Mob's kids…oh God Mob had kids…were arguing, now, and he wanted to be anywhere but there because there were MOB'S KIDS and she…she was right there with her kids…her kids…that she'd had…

Mob was someone's mom.

Mob was a mother.

Her life had progressed while his had remained stagnant. She was…he remembered what the kid had said…she was separated from Serizawa…and they'd had children together. Two of them. A blue eyed little boy who couldn't keep his mouth shut and a little girl….who looked More like Mob…her eyes were brown and her hair was black but his was fluffy, like Serizawa's got when it got long…and he had seen Serizawa make that face, that anxious face, before…and she was still clinging to Mob's hand…

"Good. I've been…it been good…ok…it's been…I don't know." Said Mob. She reached into her bag and Reigen braced himself, he had been beaten up by half of her family already, and he knew that was not Mob's way but he couldn't imagine that she would have been happy to see him. He had been the one, in her mind, to have started all of…this. He had rejected her and sent her to Serizawa and she…and if he hadn't tried to reject her that day then these two kids would not have existed…and…and he was responsible for two kids existing in the world….and that was a lot and this was a lot and he needed a smoke and a drink even though he only allowed himself one drink every other day just to keep from getting drunk but this is one of those times when he needed to ignore his self-imposed set of rules because this was A LOT and…

And Mob pulled a small cat…no…a small cat shaped purse from her purse…and at some point she had started wearing a purse…and she handed it to the little girl…

"Go and get some snacks from the convenience store over there, Yukuko, whatever you two want. I have to…to catch up with…an old friend." Said Mob as she handed the girl…her daughter…oh my fucking God Mob has kids…and the kids' eyes, both of them, lit up like it was Christmas morning. The girl took the change purse from Mob, and then the boy took it from the girl, and then they both ran off to the Family Mart by the bus station that he had passed a thousand times…and now Mob's kids were in there…

Her kids.

Mob had two kids.

Mob and Serizawa had two kids together.

"The boy is Shigeko and the girl is Yuzuko…he's going to be eleven soon and Yukuko just turned nine…." Said Mob softly. She was playing with the strap of her purse, now, and Reigen just noticed that it was purple and green like the robot from that show she had liked all those years ago...he wondered if she still liked it. He wondered if she still liked cats and milk and animes about robots and feelings and…and all of that.

Had she changed?

Had he?

"They're…they're great kids. Your…your son…he said that there was a curse on my back and he…he got rid of it…" said Reigen even though the last thing he wanted to talk about with her was her children. He didn't…but he also did. He did some math. Mob…Mob must have had that kid, the oldest, Shigeo while she was still a kid herself….

He did some more quick math.

It would have been easier if he had the kid's exact birthday.

"Shigeo does that a lot…he helps people. It was a little scary, it always is when he runs away like that…he always does that when I leave him alone…but he's much too old for me to take him into the bathroom with me…and he's always fine…he's a good boy. They're both good kids…" said Mob. She was closer to him, now, but he still had trouble hearing her. She was…she was nervous…and so was he…

He wondered if this was really such a good idea.

He had spent many a night staring up at the abyss and wondering what he would have said to her if he ever ran into her on the streets. Sometimes he yelled at her. Sometimes he ignored her. Sometimes he spoke very calmly and demanded an explanation for…anything. Anything that had happened between them. Sometimes he kissed her. Sometimes he got angry enough that he swore that he could have killed her. Sometimes…well this was not one of those times. This was real life, not the recesses of his mind as he tried to drift off to sleep, and he was really standing there with her in the middle of the street on a Sunday afternoon...

This was happening.

This was really happening.

"Do you…there's a tea place over there…you want to get a cup of tea? I mean…your kids can come too..." said Reigen as he motioned to the tea place behind them. He did not want to do this out there in the middle of the street. He wanted to, he needed to, have something to do with his hands. A cup of tea to sip when he needed time to collect his thoughts, a table between them, and a bathroom to excuse himself to when things got to be too much. If it got to be much too much, too much that even a bathroom break wouldn't be enough time to compose himself, the bus station was right there and he could always pretend that he needed to get on whichever bus was turning up and run out with the promise, the possibly empty promise, that they really should do this again.

It would be easier.

"I'll tell them where I am. They need some time to run around. I just picked them up from their grandmother's and she's all the way in Baked Goods City…they've got a lot of energy to burn off…and I could use a rest." Said Mob. This was happening. Reigen was still having trouble believing that any of this was happening. His mind was having trouble reconciling the Mob that existed in this reality with the Mob that had existed in his mind for over a decade.

Mob was not fifteen years old anymore.

Master Reigen was not twenty nine years old anymore.

Mob knew this. She knew that time had passed, that people grew and aged and changed. She had grown and aged, everyone had, and changed so of course he would have too. He wasn't as thin as he used to be, and his hair was shorter, and he was starting to get some lines by his eyes but he was still…she would have recognized him anywhere. No matter how much time had passed she would always be able to recognize him.

Even if she had pretended, before, that she hadn't.

It had been years ago, back when she was pregnant with Shigeo, that their paths had last crossed. She had been on a train to see Serizawa's mother. She hadn't want to be on that train, she hadn't wanted to see his mother, she hadn't wanted anything more than to be in bed watching TV and waiting for tomorrow to happen. She had been fifteen, pregnant, and miserable. None of the books and websites had warned her for how tired she would be, how much her back and feet and breasts would hurt, and how hard it would be to do much of anything but lay there and wait for her baby to be born.

It hadn't been long before his birth.

She had been as big as a house, as Sho had often told her, and in a lot of pain. She was annoyed, too, because she hadn't wanted to meet his mother. Serizawa's mother was a nice person but she had so many…expectations…of how Mob should have been taking care of Serizawa. His favorite foods, how to fold his clothes, how to draw his baths, and about a million other things that she was supposed to be learning how to do because she was going to become his wife…things that she didn't want to learn how to do. It was enough work going to parenting class and regular school, she didn't want to learn anything else. Serizawa never expected her to do those things, he said, but he also never told his mom to get off of Mob's back.

It had been a lot.

She had been in a terrible mood that day. All she wanted to do was read her manga and sit there. She didn't want to have a person sitting on her bladder making her have to pee every half hour, she didn't want her feet to be so swollen that she had to wear crocs everywhere, she didn't' want the train so be so bumpy that she felt like throwing up everywhere, and she certainly didn't want to get into it with Master Reigen while she was five months pregnant on a the most packed, and roughest riding, train in Japan that she was riding on to see her mother in law who only liked Mob because that meant that she had someone to take care of Serizawa after she died!

Back then she had a lot going on.

Now she did but…but it wasn't so much. Divorcing Serizawa wasn't easy, it wasn't fun, and it hurt them both…him much more than her…but at least she had her family backing her up on this for once. Taking care of the kids wasn't easy, she had relied on Serizawa for that, but Ritsu and Sho, mostly Sho, were very good with them. The trip to see Serizawa and his mother was a long one but she didn't have a human being growing inside of her now.

Also she wasn't fifteen anymore.

She was twenty six, almost twenty seven, and she could handle this. She had thought of him, Master Reigen, just Reigen now, for years. Going over what she would have said if they were to meet under favorable circumstances. Sometimes she imagined yelling at him, blaming him for everything that had gone wrong in her life, but those fantasies never lasted. This was all her fault. She made her own choices, her life was her own, and she had no one to blame but herself. She was the one who had started all of that. She was the one who had messed up. She was the one who hadn't been good about taking her medicine and she was the one who had decided to have Shigeo and she was the one who married Serizawa despite the fact that they weren't good for one another and now she was the one who had made the choice to sit here, beside Master Reigen, just Reigen, while her children chased each other around outside like, well, a couple of children.

She was not a child anymore.

And her life was her own.

"So…" said Reigen as his tea cooled in front of him. Mob stared at hers. Unreadable, as always. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now. She was there and he was there and…and her children were there too. Outside, clearly visible through the window, playing some game that involved running up and down the street and laughing.

"You look different." Said Mob for lack of anything else. What she wanted to say was that she was having trouble reconciling the man he was, now, with the man who had existed in her mind for the past decade. In her mind he was as he always had been. Ageless. But she had been young, too young to notice him aging, because he had aged even when she had known him back then. She had divided the world into two categories, kids and adults, with kids changing and adults being changeless. At some point she had tried to cross over to the adult side before her time and had done all of her changing at once. She wanted to ask him if she looked different in his eyes, if he was having his own trouble reconciling the person she had been with the person she had become.

She didn't know how.

"Yeah, ten years'll do that to a guy. I can't believe I'm coming up on middle age, damn. In another ten years I'll be unrecognizable." Said Reigen patting his stomach. At some point his metabolism had slowed to a crawl and he had gone up a size or two. Mob…she looked great. Even after two kids she looked great. Perfect, like she always had…

No, better.

She was not fifteen anymore.

"I'll always be able to recognize you, Master…I mean Reigen. No matter how much older you get." Said Mob. She swirled her tea with her powers. Something to do. A nervous habit, like Shigeo with his constant fidgeting or Yuzuko and her nail biting. She watched her children out of the corner of her eye. Now they were sitting on a bench playing with their phones, running up and down the street had apparently gotten boring. Yuzuko was nervous, her hair was floating and her thumb was in her mouth. Shigeo was talking, he was always talking, and he seemed totally at ease. Children. Her children. Not a day went by when she wasn't amazed at the fact that she had created human beings and now they were…there.

"Same…and you don't have to call me Master. You're a grown woman now. You can…just call me Reigen…or Arataka…if you want." Said Reigen granting her his given name. They were equals, now, they were both adults here. Two adults drinking tea. A salaryman man and a single-ish mother. No longer master and student.

"Ok….Arataka." said Mob. She granted him his given name. They were equals, now. Truly equals. Two adults. She had said to him, ten years ago, that it didn't matter. That her age meant nothing in the face of love. She knew better now. They were nowhere near equals and now she could see, with the benefit of these ten years, that she had in no way been anything close to an adult. She had been a child, then, and he had been right to reject her.

She had not been ready.

She had not been ready for any of it.

But now she was.

"Mob…or do you go by Shigeko now…or Mrs. Serizawa?" asked Reigen, the last part coming out in more of a choke than anything. She had a ring on her finger, now, and she was…her son had used the words divorced and separated interchangeably…and it was wrong of him to still think of her like that. He had spent the past ten years trying to get over her and now there he was hoping that they could…could what, exactly?

Pick up where they'd left off?

No. They had left off with him in a puddle of his own drunken depression and her off with the man she had given everything to. He would not go back to that. It had been wrong of him to do what he had done. It had been wrong of him to…to even start that with her in the first place…because she had been so young, too young for him…and she was still…no she wasn't. She was a grown woman, now, with two children and a life of her own. Her life had always been her own but…but she had been too young for all of that then.

So had he.

They both had needed to do some growing up, maybe, because he had been wrong to…to have done that. The first time had been…it had been the most amazing time of his life…but the second time had been pure selfishness…and then she had been gone…

And he does not want to repeat that.

But he does want her.

"Mob is fine, I don't mind Shigeko, but I'm not Mrs. Serizawa anymore. At least I won't be, anymore…we're separated…me and Katsuya are getting a divorce." Said Mob. She had said those words before. To her children, to her parents, to her brother and his husband, and it never stopped hurting. It hurt her because she knew that she was hurting him. He had done nothing but love her all these years and it just wasn't fair to him. He shouldn't have wasted another decade of his life on a woman who could never return the love he gave her fully. They had tried, she had tried, but one day she just…she could not try anymore. She moved in with Ritsu and Sho, he moved in with his mother, their apartment got sold, and custody of the children was still being ironed out. It was…it was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do…but it was for their own good.

She knew who she wanted to be with.

And there he was.

No ring on his finger. No ring tan line, either. She still wore her ring because she was technically still married. She was still, technically, Serizawa Shigeko until the papers were signed…if he ever signed them….

"Oh yeah, your kid said something about that." Said Reigen trying to sound more disaffected than he was…which was not at all. The news of her impending divorce should not have made him this happy. She was getting a divorce, one of the most painful experiences a person could go through, and he was thinking about…about things that he shouldn't have. About taking his shot, finally, after all these years…

"I bet he did. Shigeo…he's not taking it well. I think that's why he ran away from me. He's…he has a lot of feelings about this and he tells anyone who'll listen. The people at MobRonald's hide when he comes in. It's…it's been hard on him." said Mob. She wished that she had done this sooner, when the children were too young to know what was happening, or better yet before they had ever been…no. She loved her children and she if she could go back in time and do it again she still would have had them. She would have just waited until she had at least finished high school…or had them with a different man, too, while she was making big changes to the timeline of her life.

"Divorce is hard on kids. I mean I don't have any kids and I've never been divorced but I know that my parents' divorce was hard on me. Not that your kids won't turn out ok! They will, better than me, because they have you for a mom. Just…and I know I might be running my mouth about shit that is none of my business but…if he's anything like me he's going to get worse before he gets better. I was a lot like him, I went on and on to anyone that would listen because I…I felt like I had nobody to talk to about it and it was, well, a lot…then the acting out happened and my mom she…she punished me a lot when all I wanted was to be….I guess seen and heard. Not that you're anything like my mother! And not that…not that this is any of my business." Said Reigen before he took a big swig of his tea. Right. Not his monkeys and not his circus. Heh. Ten years gone and even now he couldn't help but give Mob advice. Advice that she probably didn't even need. She knew her own son and she knew what was best for him. She was…she was a grown woman now…

"I never looked at it like that…thank you. I love Shigeo, I do, but I don't…I don't understand him, sometimes. It's nice to have someone else's perspective. Ritsu just says that he's weird and Sho just says that he's…well Sho says that he's weird, too, but in a different way. Shigeo has been so…so difficult lately. Yuzuko hasn't been nearly as…difficult. Maybe because she's younger. Maybe because she's a girl. Maybe because she takes so much after Katsuya…" said Mob. She didn't want to talk about him. She didn't want to think about the ring that was still on her finger and her children, his children, their children that were out there and…and the man sitting in front him and all that he meant to her even after all of these years.

"Hey Mob, can I ask you something?" asked Reigen. There had been a silence that had been threatening to grow between them. He did not want that silence to grow because it could, quickly, turn into an awkward silence and that would end with her excusing herself, most likely, and walking out of his life forever.

He could not have that.

"Asking me that is already asking me something." Said Mob with a small smile. Reigen forgot how to breathe for a moment, it had been so long since he had seen her smile, and he had almost forgotten how…how beautiful and perfect her smiles were…

"Why Shigeo? And Yuzuko?" asked Reigen once his heart decided to calm down and his lungs decided to end their strike.

"Why what?" asked Mob. Why not invite them inside and make them sit at the table with them? Why spend every single weekend crossing the country, practically, even though there was no reason for it? No reason beyond her own selfish feelings? Why take them from the only home they had ever known just because their mother could not stop pining over a man that she had lost contact with a decade ago? A man that had now come back into her life? A man that she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with, as she had since she had just a few years older than her son? A man who, upon looking at him for the first time in a decade, bore more than a passing resemblance to her son? Why put her two children though all of this?

Why be so selfish all the time?

"Why…just why Shigeo? Yuzuko is at least far from your own name but….Shigeo? Mob, come on, that's only one syllable away from your own name." said Reigen. He had wanted to ask her why she had children in the first place. She must have had Shigeo when she was a teenager…and Yuzuko too. Why? She had so much life to live but she had just thrown away, no, given away her youth. To Serizawa. To have his children. He wanted to know….everything. Every single detail about how her life had gone…how she had ended up like this…

"Oh. I like names that sound like mine and the names of people that I know. I always wanted a son named Shigeo and I wanted to call Yuzuko Ritsuko, after Ritsu, but Katsuya wanted to name her after his mother. I'm kind of glad that I didn't end up calling her Ritsuko. Sho likes that name, and Shoko too, which was another name that I wanted for one of my children, and I'm going to let them use it when they have a baby. They're married now, well not legally but they had a big party and exchanged vows and rings, and they want to have kids in a few years so I'll let them have those names. I also liked Takako…after you…for a girl." Said Mob softly. She looked away from him, out to where her children were. Shigeo was sitting upside on the bench and Yuzuko was making her snacks float in front of herself and taking pictures. She had always wanted more children, and she could have had them, but something had always been holding her back…

The man she had been having them with.

She loved him…as much as she could…but after Yuzuko she had been done having children with Katsuya. It had come to her while she had been laying down in her recovery bed at the hospital. Yuzuko had been so small and helpless and she loved her daughter so much…and it wasn't fair. The way she felt about her husband…it wasn't fair to bring children into such a union.

Selfish even.

So she had stopped having children. She could have more. She was still young and she made decent money. Freelance exorcisms made up some of her income and the rest was made up by her and Minegishi's flower shop, thank goodness he hadn't picked sides in her divorce, and as far as money went she could have supported another child. Ritsu and Sho wouldn't let her help out with the rent or bills even though they had moved into a bigger apartment just so that there was room for Mob and her children, she shared a room with Yuzuko but it was better than being all alone with her children in some new, strange, apartment….and it wasn't even so bad, now, since Sho had forgiven her. He had taken sides in the divorce but Ritsu…Ritsu put a stop to that. Mostly.

She was dreading coming home.

"I like that…Takako. Better than Arataki, heh, if you were going to a feminine version of my name." said Reigen. Seemed a bit uncreative to him but Mob could name her kids whatever she wanted. He couldn't see himself naming a kid after either of his parents. Yoshio and Sophia. Nope, not happening. Not that he was going to have any kids, he was almost forty and he didn't even have a girlfriend, and any woman his age would have been most likely either done having kids or hadn't wanted any in the first place.

Maybe Mob wanted more kids.

And he knows that he's thinking thoughts that he should not have been thinking. He's thinking of a future with her, one that he had been trying to dissuade himself from imagining for ten years now. That was not the thought to have. This had been the first time he had sat down with her in a decade and there was no way of telling if they would ever sit down like this together again.

"I hadn't even thought of Arataki….but I like it." Said Mob

"Oh God, what have I done?" moaned Reigen dramatically. Mob couldn't help it…she laughed. Well it come out as more of a giggle but it was enough to send Reigen's heart into overdrive. He couldn't even remember the last time he had heard her laugh…it was intoxicating. It was just as intoxicating now as it had been back then and he wanted nothing more than to take her hand in his…

Her right hand.

Her left hand…she still wore her wedding ring. A plain gold band. Plain but…but so much. She had been married. She was married. She was married to Serizawa and she was there with…without Serizawa. Besides, her being with Serizawa had never stopped him before. A bitter thought.

"I missed this." said Mob. He was just as she remembered him. He may have gained some weight, a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and his hair may have even gotten a little bit of silver to it now, but he was still Master Reigen. Her Master Reigen. Her Reigen Arataka. Her everything.

She still loved him.

She had never stopped loving him.

The ring on her finger feels like a dreadfully heavy thing, now. It feels like it's pinning her hand to the table. Both of them. She wants nothing more than to reach across the table and take his hand in hers. She could have so easily crossed that distance between them…and it hadn't ever stopped her before, Katsuya, and what she was to him…but she…she didn't want to ruin…to mess up….whatever this was.

She had messed up, before.

She had been young and stupid. She had wanted everything without thought to what she had. She had been playing with something that she couldn't even begin to understand, to comprehend, and now…now she had to be smarter. She wasn't that girl anymore, that stupid little girl who thought that she was an adult. That impatient little girl who couldn't stand to wait for three measly years. That selfish little girl who couldn't stand to be alone, who mistook obligation and guilt for love, who played with the feelings of a man who was so sweet and wonderful but also so, incredibly, **needy**….

She was not that girl anymore.

And she was not going to mess this up.

"Me too…I missed this so much…I missed you…" said Reigen. 'I missed you' did not encompass even a millionth of what he had been feeling for her for these past ten years. For once in his life he was without words. There were no words for what he felt, what he had been feeling, what he had been wanting. Well there were. There were three words…

I love you.

Those three words that he had given her all those years ago. That she had given him. He wondered if they still stood, if they were still true, or if she had gotten over him. The thought hurts, it hurts like getting kicked in the chest with a steel toed boot, and he wants nothing more than to make it stop. He wants nothing more than to rip out his heart and to lay it down at her feet and just see what it was that she did with it. She was watching her children now…her children…he didn't mind that she had children. She was Mob and he would love her no matter what…and there had been a lot of 'what' in their past…and maybe in their future…but he didn't care. He still wanted to see it out with her.

"I never stopped thinking about you, not once, and that's…that's why me and Katsuya are getting a divorce." Said Mob

"I…I'm sorry. I mean…that he's leaving you because of me. I never thought that he had it in him but, well, it has been ten years-" said Reigen

"No, I'm the one who wants a divorce." Said Mob

"You? Why? Mob, the last time I saw you…you said that you loved him-" said Reigen

"I thought that I did. I thought that because he loved me, and because the…it was so good…intimately…and because he went to pieces when I…when I suggested that we break up…I thought that I had to love him. I mistook love for obligation and I was also so desperate to see myself as an adult that I…I just dug my feet in whenever anyone tried to talk some sense into me…I even drove my mother to drink with all that I put her through…and I was happy with him sometimes but…but I always…you were always at the back of my mind." Said Mob

"Mob, you've-" said Reigen

"And I wanted to be with you but…but Shigeo was born and I was married and I just…I was stuck! My parents told me that if I was old enough to have a baby then I was old enough to be married and to make my own choices…my dad said choices and my mom said mistakes…and then I thought that I had to stay because they wouldn't…I thought that I couldn't go back because going back would have been admitting that I had been wrong…and we had a baby together! And I thought that I couldn't leave Katsuya because we had this baby together and I was…I was trapped! I couldn't go to school, any school, because I had a baby and I was so depressed I couldn't even move…not that I wanted to-to-to-" said Mob. Her breathing was getting quick and her aura was showing and the table was moving and she knew that she should have shut up, stopped talking, because she was talking too much but it just wouldn't stop coming out!

"Hey, Mob-" said Reigen. He reached over and held his hand over hers. Not touching, not yet, because as worked up as she was getting he had no idea if touching her would make it worse or better…

"And I couldn't move anyway because of all the stiches and I needed him to take care of me…and he could sort of…but sometimes he couldn't. Sometimes he got so overwhelmed and I had to be the one to…to comfort him and the baby…and it was so much…I mean people helped. Those Claw guys thought, still think, that I'm their President and they brought me food and baby stuff and even tried to babysit…they were afraid of Shigeo a little since he was born with his powers like me, he didn't present later like everyone else, and for a while nobody COULD watch him because he could…he has all of my powers so he can steal energy…and he would do that without even realizing it…and I was all alone and…and Ritsu couldn't help me with Shigeo because he had his own school stuff to deal with and Sho wouldn't because he was so mad at me…and he's mad at me again because of the divorce…and it was so hard-" said Mob

"Listen-" said Reigen. This time he did take her hand. Her right hand. He took it in his and he tried to pour every ounce of feeling in his entire being into keeping her calm…and now her kids were getting up…the girl was holding the boy back…and he needed Mob to calm down but she was just getting herself so worked up…

"And the whole time I wanted to be with you. The whole time when I was recovering and taking care of my baby I wanted to be with you…I even saw you on the train once when I was pregnant with Shigeo but I was too afraid to even say hi…because it would have been more than hi….and I loved you so much and I just…I wanted to be with you and I wanted to leave and I hated myself for wanting to leave and I hated my life because I couldn't see my friends or go to school…I wanted to make the most of my youth, before, but I lost so much of it…and I was so unhappy that I…I had Yuzuko…and then I realized how selfish I was being…" said Mob wiping her eyes with the back of her left hand. Her right hand was in his and it…it was making her feel better. This. She had wanted this for over a decade and now she had it…

"You are not selfish, ok? Mob…you are not selfish." Said Reigen softly. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I am. I really am…and I was back then, too. After she was born I just…I just looked at her and thought 'I made a human being with a man who…who is not the man that I'm in love with. How could I bring a child into a union like that?' and then I just…stopped having children even though I want more. I just…I've been so selfish. If I had just waited three years like you wanted…or waited until I was an actual adult before I confessed…and if I hadn't just…taken advantage of Katsuya that night..." said Mob

"The loneliest words that we'll ever know…if only, if only, it were so." Said Reigen softly. She smiled at him, again, and the table stopped shaking like a leaf in a monsoon.

"Did you just think that up?" asked Mob

"No…it's from a song. Sorry. I haven't really been thinking up a lot of originals lately…I haven't had anyone to share them with." Said Reigen

"You can share them with me. I'm here and…and I want to be with…you. In whatever way you want. I've…for the past ten years I've missed you…and I've…yeah. I've missed you." Said Mob, her hand still in his, her tea growing cold, and her children arguing in front of the tea shop window. She would have to go to them, get up from here, and go to them. End this…even though she didn't want to. She wanted to drag this moment out for the rest of her life…but she couldn't be so selfish.

She had children now.

And she had been selfish enough.

"Mob…I want…I love you. I love you and I…you can do whatever you want with that information. You can spit in my face, you can tell me to fuck off, you can politely excuse yourself and avoid me for the rest of your life, or you could…." Said Reigen. He let the last part hang in the air. He wanted that last part more than he had ever wanted anything in his life…but he also wanted her to be happy…

"I love you too…and I want…I want to try again. You were right, before, that I was too young for you. I thought that I knew what I wanted, then, that I had it all figured out. That age was just a number…but it's not. I was a child, then, a selfish child and I…we wouldn't have been good for each other…I wouldn't have been good for you. I think now…if you want…we could try again. Restart. If you want." Said Mob. She would have to go soon. Her children needed to get home, do their homework, take their baths, and wind down before bed. She had work in the morning and they had school. She couldn't sit here for the rest of her life with Master, with JUST Reigen…even though she wanted to. She would not be so selfish. She had a life and so did he. They had…they had changed. Grown.

"You…you're right. You were too young…and so was I. I couldn't have handled a relationship, a real relationship, with you. The messy parts. The adult parts. I just…we both needed to do some living and…and I'd like to start again, too." Said Reigen. He held her hand tight. He wanted nothing more than to reach across the table, cup her face, and kiss her. Nothing and no one had ever compared to the rapturous joy that was a kiss from Mob….

"So are we…are we together, now?" asked Mob hopefully. She wanted this. She had wanted this for years…and this time she would be better. The ring on her finger still felt like a dreadfully heavy thing…so she'd take it off when she got home. She'd take it off and put it away in her jewelry box. It was too heavy to wear, now. Much too heavy.

"Yes…if that's what you want." Said Reigen. The gap between them was so little and it would be nothing to close it…

"It is. I want this…I've wanted this for so long…" said Mob. She was struck with the thought, then, that she could kiss him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted nothing more in the world to kiss him. It would have been easy.

"Me too…" said Reigen. Mob sat up a little, just a little, because…because nothing and nobody could ever compare to kissing him. Reigen. The first person she had ever kissed. The last person that she had ever wanted to kiss. She got up, a little, because she couldn't lean over so far.

The door to the teashop opened with a jingle.

And she sat back down.

Her children. She could sense their auras. Lavender. Yuzuko. Cyan blue. Shigeo. She had children and they would have been beyond upset to see their mother kissing another man. A man who was a complete stranger to them….right after they had just come back from a visit with their father. As much as she wanted to restart with Reigen, to kiss him, to hold him, to take him to bed with her and never part…that would have been selfish. This would have to take time. She had her children to think of and they came first.

She was too old to be selfish.

So they didn't kiss. They paid their bills and parted ways after exchanging updated phone numbers and Friendbook friendvites with the promise that they would meet up again and nothing more. Not in front of her children. She wanted to be with him, she loved him, but she also loved them. When they asked about him, the strange man who'd had a cup of tea with their mother, she told them simply that he was an old friend that she had been reconnecting with.

It was the truth.

Not the whole truth but they could get that later. It was all so new, so fresh, that Mob scarce was sure it was even happening. If the children noticed her mood they didn't comment on it at any point. She knew that she would have to tell them the truth about her and Reigen but that would wait until things were more…settled.

At least until the ink was dry on the divorce papers.

And the divorce would go through. Katsuya had begged her, pleaded with her, not to do this. Not to end everything that they had built together. Not to break his heart again. She didn't want to do it, she didn't want to break anything. They had built a life together and she was breaking it down brick by brick for her own…for everyone. Nothing about that marriage had been fair to anyone. Him. Her. The children. Her parents. Her brother and his husband. Everyone had been hurt at some point because of their relationship.

Breaking up…they were long overdue.

And she would go through with it even if it meant breaking his heart.

After all….

Nothing breaks like a heart.


	30. Conclusion 2: Invitation to a Birthday

It was Shigeo's eleventh birthday party.

Well, it would be as soon as the finishing touches were finished.

They still had balloons and streamers to hang, food to put out, and cats to lock up. Psychic powers made the job easier, especially finding and putting the cats in the main bedroom for the deration of the party. Cat-A-Strophe and Cat-A-Clysm had sharp claws that they couldn't cut because, according to Sho, it was cruel. So was putting the cats away but Serizawa thought that putting them in a bedroom with plenty food and water was less cruel than subjecting them to several dozen elementary schoolers.

A lot of people were coming, probably.

Serizawa had no idea how many people were coming, Shigeo had A LOT of friends, and he hoped that he had enough of, well, everything. Enough soda pop for the kids, and Shigeko, and beers for the adults. Enough cakes, they had gotten three from the Costco, two chocolate and one yellow. Enough snacks, three different kinds of chips and two different kinds of dips, pretzels, candies, and an industrial sized box of poke. Enough milk, regular chocolate and strawberry, but that was mostly for Shigeko and the kids. Hopefully four liters was enough.

Thank God Sho and Ritsu let them store some of this in their apartment.

That was the benefit to living next door to your brothers in law, though no matter how many times they all voted the country wouldn't let them get married for real but they had a beautiful ceremony, you could store the truly excessive amounts of food you purchased for your son's birthday party somewhere where your children and very pregnant wife couldn't get to it. Also because they took up the entire end of the hall they could be as loud as they wanted…well sort of….sound proofing would have to happen but they could at least host all of Shigeo's friends.

How his son managed to make so many was beyond Serizawa.

Really, it was amazing with him and Shigeko raising him that he had done so well. Maybe because he hadn't gotten Shigeko's shyness and he hadn't picked up on Serizawa's anxiety. Not like his sisters. Yuzuko, Katsuko, Ritsuko, and Hanako…so all of the others, pretty much. They were quiet girls when they were around others, Serizawa suspected that they saved up all of their noise and energy for when they got home, and they didn't have many friends…well they didn't need many. They had each other.

And their cousin, too, when she was born.

"D-Don't strain yourself…for yourself and the baby." Said Serizawa even though she was using her powers, not her arms, to hang Shigeo's birthday decorations, purple and green balloons and streamers. She was sitting on the couch, which was good, but she was also holding her stomach with both hands. She had been pregnant before, so many times before, and he knew that the anxiety should have subsided by now but he still got worried when she got that big….or when she was pregnant at all. They had five children together, he should have been better about this, the worrying, by now…

But he wasn't.

And this one wasn't even his kid.

"It's ok, Shoko's just kicking my insides, that's all." Said Shigeko. Serizawa took a couple of deep breaths.

She was fine.

"Hey none of that, Shoko, or you're grounded the minute you come out of there. I am not kidding one bit." Called Sho from the other room. She was so nice to do that for her brother and Sho. Serizawa didn't think that he could ever do that, have a baby and then just…give it away. Not that she was going to totally give it, her, Shoko away. Sho and Ritsu lived just across the hall after all.

"She's a baby, where, exactly, do you think she's planning on going?" he heard Ritsu ask. Shigeko's little brother had hated him for a little bit, not that long, when Shigeko announced her pregnancy. In retrospect maybe, just maybe, announcing it over dinner at her parent's house a few days after her mother had beaten the shit out of him with her ring hand hadn't been the best idea.

It had been welcome news, though.

Especially after the bomb she had dropped on their relationship. She had come home one day and just…just told him that she had cheated on him again. With Reigen. It would have been better, almost, if she had been out there picking up random men. It would have been about sex, only sex, then. But it hadn't been about sex, it had been about love, and that made it just…the worst. He cried, she cried, he almost broke up with her…and thank God that he hadn't. No matter how much it hurt, how many times she slept with Reigen Arataka, he could never leave her. He loved her and when you loved someone you forgave them.

No matter how many times they begged you to break up with them.

If she had wanted to break up, really break up, she would have just broken up with him instead of putting the onus of responsibility on him. She knew that he loved her, even after all of that, and she knew that no matter how many times she ripped his heart out and showed it to him he would always come back to her. Their therapist, every single couple's therapist they had ever gone to, said that he sacrificed too many of his own needs. He didn't disagree, not at all, but he didn't think that they needed to break up. That had been the subtext of everything that every single relationship therapist had ever told them. They had started going when she had been pregnant with Shigeo. That had also been the first, but not the last time, a therapist had let them go. He had said that he couldn't, in good conscience, continue to counsel a thirty one year old man and his pregnant fifteen year old girlfriend/fiancé/woman who had trouble with infidelity but he still loved with all of his heart.

He was glad that they hadn't taken any of the very expensive professional advice that they had been given.

Because he didn't know what he would have done without her. He loved her even after she hurt him so badly…so badly that he hadn't known that he would…if he could ever have left his room…left the pit of despair that he had been trapped in….it had hurt but she…paradoxically she had made him feel wonderful and terrible at the same time. Terrible in her actions but…but wonderful after she…after she told him that she might have been…

That she was pregnant.

With a baby.

A baby had been growing inside of her. Her, a baby, a new human being. He loved her, and her baby, so much….so much more than he had thought was even possible. He remembered it, that first kick, the first time that it really dawned on him that they had, that she had, made a new person. That she had been…well he had known that she had been pregnant with…with his…not his…with her…

With THEIR son. Shigeo. It hadn't mattered then, and it didn't matter now, where he had come from.

"I hope it's somewhere bigger than my insides." She said. He rubbed a hand on her stomach. Before he had been able to feel it, her, Shoko kicking. None of the others, not even Shigeo, had kicked as much as this baby did. She would be a world class soccer player, maybe, or a kick boxer like Sho had predicted. Shigeko just wanted to know how to make it stop. Their children, their girl children, had hardly ever kicked. They had all been easy, Shigeko had said, and Serizawa believed her even though it all looked pretty difficult to him.

Pretty damn scary.

But she was fine.

Of course she was fine. She had been going through this every other year, about, for eleven years. He had nothing to be anxious about. Not his wife's pregnancy, not the fact that several dozen elementary schoolers plus a good amount of adults would be descending upon his apartment soon, and certainly not the lack of sound coming from the girls' bedroom….well maybe that last one was worrying. When they were silent they were up to something…though what they could be up, now, when they had had whole party to go crazy in he did not know.

Last time they had been that quiet they had given the cat a haircut.

The time before that they had given each other haircuts.

What was it with little girls and haircuts? Shigeo never tried to cut his own hair, the cat's hair, or anyone else's hair. Not that Serizawa was complaining. He was grateful to have any children at all even if he was vastly outnumbered in his own home. One boy, four girls, and he wouldn't trade it for the world. Not that he was hoping for another one, either, no way. Well if it happened then it happened, and it always just sort of happened, none of the children had been planned but…he wasn't sure if he wanted more. He loved each and every single one of them, he really did, but it did get hard being at home with five children day in and day out. Not that he was complaining about that, either, he had made his choice. He stayed home with the kids and Shigeko went out and earned the money. It had been that way for…a long time.

Too long.

But she never complained. She said that she liked being out of the house. She had worked all throughout every single one of her pregnancies, even Shigeo, and she wouldn't stop no matter how many times he asked her too. He had been a wreck, then, when she had been pregnant with Shigeo all those years ago. Eleven years ago, almost. It was amazing to think of how fast the time had gone.

"It's not…time…is it?" asked Serizawa. He could see his aura a little, then, but he held steadfastly onto control. He had moved all of the breakables and valuables; the family pictures, games consoles, and his models, out of the room but he didn't want to risk hurting any of the decorations or anything else in the room. Even with powers it took a while to hang a up one hundred and eleven balloons. Why a hundred and eleven? Because Shigeo was turning eleven and it was his birthday and if he wanted a hundred and eleven balloons then he was getting one hundred balloons plus eleven for his age. Like he had said…he ran off of his own internal logic sometimes. All kids did.

"No, not yet. She still has a couple weeks, Katsuya, and Shigeo would never forgive her if she took his birthday, cousin of not." Said Shigeko. He wondered if cousin was the right word. Shigeo had taken to calling Shoko his sister-cousin, which according to their family therapist was a good thing because that meant that he accepted Shoko, though the whole thing sounded strange to other people. It wouldn't have been a problem, and it wasn't, but it would have been nice if Serizawa hadn't had to explain to everyone they came into contact with, from Shigeo's classroom teacher to the man who sold ice cream at the end of the block, the exact circumstances of his wife's pregnancy.

Well really it was Shigeo who liked explaining to everyone exactly, in exact detail, how artificial insemination worked…

Because it was fascinating, he said, and he wanted to share it with everyone…no matter how many times he told his son that maybe not everyone in the world needed to know how Uncle Sho and Uncle Ritsu's daughter was coming into the world. Shigeo didn't get it no matter how many times it was explained to him. Sho had said, once, that Shigeo had inherited his cluelessness from his mother and his chattiness from his father….

Then Ritsu had pulled him away and they had exchanged harsh words.

"She's coming?! She had better not!" first the shouting, then the running, and then Shigeo appeared in the living/dining/party room like a tornado. He could move REALLY fast when he wanted to. All of the kids could. They were still so little that they hadn't finished awakening, Shigeko had been developing new powers into her mid-teens, but even what they had could be a little much. He still got overwhelmed, sometimes, even though he was half of the reason they had their powers in the first place.

"You hear me sister-cousin? You'd better stay in there until my birthday is over. You can have Yuzuko's birthday, she's not doing anything with it anyway." Said Shigeo directly into his mother's stomach. Shigeko touched his hair with her hand and his aura with hers. She used her powers to straighten out his clothes, an early birthday present from her friend Hanazawa all the way from Tokyo. Apparently Tokyo was the fashion capitol of the world and Shigeo should have been tickled pink, Hanazawa's words, that he could be a part of it.

It had taken almost an hour to convince Shigeo to get into that pink and blue suit.

And even longer to figure out how to tie a tie. Serizawa had known, before, how to do it but it had been over a decade since he'd even had an occasion to wear more than pants and a T-Shirt. Sho had never tied a tie in his life and Ritsu, well, he had tried. YouTube had saved them in the end and now Shigeo was there and all dressed up and ready for his party.

He looked just like his father.

"Shige, please calm down. Your mother doesn't need any extra excitement today or you really will end up sharing a birthday with your cousin." Said Serizawa. Blue eyes met his and then narrowed.

"She wouldn't do that to me. She loves me. I read her all of her favorite stories, I can tell that they're her favorites because of her aura. And besides, she's my sister-cousin she wouldn't do me like that…would she? Right? Because she knows that if she did that to me then I would never forgive her…and I'm already going to have trouble forgiving her for not being a boy. Why'd I have to have another sister? I didn't want another sister, I already have four, I don't need another…." Now those same blue eyes were narrowing even more and had trained themselves on Shigeko's stomach.

"Be nice or I am popping each and every one of these balloons!" said Sho loudly. There was a flash of blue, blue aura, and every single decoration that had been so painstakingly hung up to the birthday boy's exact, and very complicated, specifications. Shigeo at least had the decency to look crestfallen and offer to help.

He was such a good boy.

Serizawa couldn't have asked for a better son…and that was his son. Not matter where he came from he would always be Serizawa's son. Even if his eyes were blue and his hair had been light brown when he had been born and he was outgoing when both of his parents were shy or if he never stopped talking when the rest of the family could enjoy the sound of silence just fine or even if-

Serizawa Shigeo was his son.

Biology be damned Serizawa Shigeo was his son. He had held him ten minutes after he was born, he had taught him to count by two and ties his shoes, he had taught him how to use his powers with some modicum of control, so had Shigeko of course, and he had taught Shigeo to never be afraid of himself, so had Shigeko, even after that time, all of the times, he had lost control of his powers and accidentally hurt something…or someone. He had been there. He would always be there.

For his son.

Everyone knew, of course, where Shigeo had really come from. Everyone knew and everyone knew not to mention the elephant in the room. Especially not when the boy in question could overhear and then start asking a lot of uncomfortable questions. Questions that nobody wanted to answer. Questions that he, and especially Shigeko, didn't like to answer. Things were ok, now, more than ok and everyone wanted them to stay that way. They hadn't always been ok, of course, Sho had said some very…unkind…words to Shigeko on Serizawa's behalf even though it really, REALLY, hadn't been necessary. He had apologized eventually and that was all water under the bridge now.

Everyone had, eventually, forgiven everyone else.

And now they were all ok. Especially him. He was the most ok. He had no reason not to be. Shigeko had chosen him, in the end, and that was what mattered. They had a rocky first year, or two, but things eventually got better. She had wanted him to break up with her, before, but then she had taken it all back after Shigeo was born…of course every couple of years she…well then she always took it back when the children were born. Shigeo. Yuzuko. Ritsuko. Hanako. She hadn't said a word about wanting to even so much as separate, now, and hopefully she wouldn't after Shoko was born, too.

Hopefully.

Because she had reason to…no. That was all over and done with now. It didn't matter what had happened. It didn't matter who had come back into their lives. The only thing that mattered was that they were a family and that they were happy. They were, they really were, even if there had been some bumps on the road.

Shigeko had been upset that she couldn't go to high school because of Shigeo and then Yuzuko. She said that online school wasn't the same.

But it was ok now. She had friends and she loved her work, she did a lot of freelance exorcism work in addition to working with Minegishi at a flower shop they both owned, and he loved his job too…and homemaking was a job. Getting the kids to school, picking them up, ferrying them to all the places he needed to go, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, all of it took effort. It all took effort and he was proud of himself. Before, back when she had been pregnant with Shigeo, he hadn't even been sure if he had the capacity to take care of himself let alone another human being.

But he had.

It hadn't been easy at first for so many reasons. Money ran out fast when you had a baby so he had to borrow a lot from his mother, and her parents, and he suspected that Sho was the one hiding balls of cash around the apartment…but those debts were mostly paid off now. It had been a little maddening, too, at first after Shigeo had been born. He needed him and Shigeko needed him, even if she hadn't had a fourth degree perennial tear to heal up she had still be very depressed after Shigeo had been born, and it was a lot of people who needed him and he…he got a little overwhelmed…and when he got overwhelmed he tended to shut down…

Thank God he, they, had so many people in their lives who cared about him.

Or at least Shigeo. Sho had been mad at Shigeko after Shigeo had been born with blue eyes and light brown hair…but he had still proved himself to be an invaluable help. He loved taking care of things and he loved Shigeo. It wasn't his fault who his dad was, Sho had said one night when he had been unusually open, feelings wise, with each other. The kind of nights where Sho rested, for a moment, because usually he was in constant motion. Even his aura had been still. Shigeo had been asleep in a laundry basket, a rare moment of quiet, and they had all just been sitting there watching him sleep. That little, blue eyes, miracle that he had been. So small, so fragile, fragile even though he had presented as an esper from birth, and oh so perfect. So soft and perfect, the most perfect person who had ever existed, though he felt that way about all of his children now…

"_He can't help who his dad is." _Sho had touched that top of Shigeo's head and said that. His head and his aura. Shigeo had stirred but not awoken. His little eyes moved behind his eye lids and his little arm reaching up to bat away whatever it was that was disturbing what little sleep he allowed himself.

Sho said it again, then, louder. More to himself than anything else. Then he said that he forgave Shigeko…well he had said it eventually. Not that night, no, she had been asleep. He said it later on, much later on, when Shigeo had been old enough to walk and talk and never, ever, ever shut up. It had come out of nowhere one day while they were at the park. Shigeo was chasing ducks, he had been chasing after Shigeo, and Ritsu had decided to take it upon himself to make sure that nobody ended up bitten by an angry duck. Shigeko had elected to stay sitting, she had been tired, and Sho had elected to keep her safe even though she was the last person in the world who needed protecting.

When they got back Sho and Shigeko were carrying on like the old friends they were.

He was a good person, Sho, the best brother in law and friend a guy could ask for. His best friend. Sho had been the one who kept him from going mad over the years. He had never been the most social person and the other parents were…intimidating. Also it was ninety-nine percent mothers and they did not want a man entering their ranks. People tended to look at him strangely, actually, when he was out and about with the children in the middle of the day while all of the other men were either at work or dead. He was used to strange looks, he had married Shigeko when she was fifteen after all, so it didn't bother him too much.

The isolation could get a little maddening, though.

Being trapped in the house all alone with only a baby, and later on a baby and a toddler, then even later on a baby and a toddler and a child, and so on and so forth, had been a lot like being in his room. Nobody to talk to, not really, and Shigeko would always be so exhausted when she came home. Sho was invaluable company. Ritsu, too, once he got older and stopped giving Serizawa the death glares for the crime of getting his big sister pregnant. Ritsu could actually be kind of nice when you got to know him…and he let you get to know him. The rest of the Kageyama family was a different story.

He pressed his tongue against the space where one of his teeth used to be. Mrs. Kageyama sure could hit hard for a lady.

"Are you ok? Is your missing tooth bothering you? We can go to the emergency dentist if you want." Said Mob mostly because she wanted an excuse to duck out for just a little bit. She knew that it was awful of her, and selfish, to want to duck out of her own son's birthday party but she was just so tired…

And nervous.

Nervous because she extended an invitation that she knew, as soon as it had been accepted, that it had been a bad idea. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him, quite the opposite in fact, and that was the problem. She had told herself then, as she told herself every year, that he had a right to be there. He had a right to be in his son's life…even if Shigeo could never know the truth. She wasn't so selfish as to drop that bomb on her eleven year old son, that the man he had stopped in the streets all those years ago because he'd gotten a nasty curse stuck to his back had been anyone other than one of his parents' old friends from before he was born.

Fate could be funny, like that, funny and cruel.

"No, I'm fine, just thinking. Your mother is definitely not coming to this thing, is she? I mean, don't get me wrong Shigeko, she's a nice woman….just not to me." asked Katsuya. At some point she had stopped being Mob to him and he had stopped being Serizawa to her. It had been around the time that she had taken his name. Serizawa Shigeko. That was who she was on paper now. At that point she had stopped being herself, stopped being Mob, and started being someone else entirely.

Mrs. Serizawa.

And at that point it made no sense to keep on calling him Serizawa since she was now a Serizawa as well. It had also made no sense for him to call her Mob, her childhood nickname, since she was not a child anymore. She was married, she had a baby on the way, and she had finally become the adult that she had been insisting that she was. She had gotten what she had wanted but she had lost what she had…and she had to take responsibility for what she had done. There was no going back. Shigeo was wanted, he was loved, and she had been looking forward to meeting him…

And she had.

And it had been obvious where he came from. A lot of children were born with blue eyes, mom had said trying to be helpful, and Serizawa had no idea who his father even was, he had said later on when it became obvious that Shigeo's eyes were blue and were going to stay that way. Not everyone was born with pure black hair, Ritsu had said after a lot of Googling, and not everyone in Japan had that eyelid thing. Everyone had their own way of explaining away Shigeo's appearance. Even Katsuya's mother. She said that she couldn't remember what color Katsuya's father's eyes had been.

Sho had just called her some very unkind, but deserved, names.

But they were ok now. They had made up. Sho had decided, after a little bit, that there was no point in being upset with Shigeo because he was just a baby and had no choice in who his father was. He had forgiven her, about a year later when she had been pregnant with Yuzuko, and they had taken Shigeo to the park. She had been too tired to do much of anything and Sho had offered to guard her even though her powers worked just fine when she was pregnant. She didn't know why he had volunteered to hang out with her, they hadn't been getting along that well, but then he had just said that he was sorry for being such a jerk to her.

At first she thought that he had just been apologizing because him being mean to her was putting a strain between him and Ritsu.

But he had been sincere and now everything was going great. Really, it was. She lived right next to her brother and his husband, she had five wonderful children, she loved her jobs, and she was even giving her brother and the love of his life the gift of a child so that he could be as happy as she was. She was happy, she really was. This was her first born son's birthday party. He was happy and he had so many friends and he was doing much better than she had when she was eleven. Her only friend had been Ritsu and she had accidentally hurt him…not that Shigeo hadn't accidentally hurt his sisters…and they hadn't accidentally hurt him and each other…that was par for the course when raising esper kids. Accidents happened, she accepted that, and she and Katsuya made sure that the accidents her children had didn't send them hiding in their rooms for fifteen years or…

Well Shigeo had still found Master Reigen, just Reigen, now.

There had been a curse stuck to his back. They had run into him purely by chance, he had been coming in from out of town at the same time they were, and all out of town trains stopped at the same station so…yeah. They ran into each other on a random Sunday evening. Not even a holiday, that would have made more sense, but a random Sunday evening on a random day…they had just run into him…

He only had to take one look at Shigeo and he knew.

The resemblance was strong. Not only in looks but in temperament. Well, not totally. Shigeo didn't know when to stop talking a lot of the time but Reigen, well he could talk a lot too, but at least he knew when not to START talking. No. He just thanked Shigeo for the curse removal, gave him a couple hundred yen, and that was that….

They could have gone their separate ways.

But they hadn't. It wouldn't have worked out, anyway, now when Reigen knew, and not when Mob….she had spent almost ten years by then trying to get over him and now…there he was. Feelings that she had been trying her hardest to starve to death came back to life after being fed for the first time in forever. She had missed him so much…and he had missed her…

But she could not have been so selfish as to act on those feelings.

But she had spoken to him, with Katsuya's blessing, of course she was not going to go sneaking around on her family, and of course nothing had happened. Nothing was going to happen. She had just wanted to talk to him, that was all, and he had wanted to talk to her. She had some explaining to do, he had said, and she agreed. She explained as best as she could. She explained how, no matter how it seemed, she was happy. Even though she hadn't been able to go to high school, she hadn't been able to be with the man she loved most in the world, and she had four kids with a fifth on the way.

She had been so happy.

She was so happy.

Even though she was anxious enough that her hair was floating and her daughter, well her niece too….niece daughter? Child that she was having with half of her genes and half of Sho's that would be, legally, her and Sho's child because the government was dumb like that….Shoko. Shoko was upset. That was why she was moving like crazy even though, at eight months along, she didn't have much room to move around at all.

"What about you? Are you ok?" asked Serizawa. He sat down next to her and put his hand on her stomach. It wasn't his kid but that didn't make it any less amazing. There was a person, a brand new person, in there! Someone entirely new was going to be born, itching to be born it seemed, if her kicking and her aura were anything to go off of.

"I'm fine...just a little nervous." Said Mob. He put his arm around her and she rested her head on his chest. She was still small enough to do this. She hadn't grown that much when they first met, only a few centimeters, so this was still very comfortable for the both of them. No matter how much they changed, how much older they got, this would still be so, incredibly, comfortable. Her head on his chest, his aura around hers, the sound of his heart beat in her ears.

She wouldn't have traded it for the world.

"Yuck! Stop being so gross!" said Shigeo

"Don't be like that, Shigeo, one day you'll meet a gir- a someone who you care this much about." Said Serizawa. He was about to tell him that he would meet a girl out of reflex. He didn't care who his son ended up with, just that he was happy. That was something that he had learned over the years, at the end of the day you could only want their happiness. You didn't give them whatever they wanted, like letting them lock themselves away in their rooms for fifteen years, but you did your best to make them happy in a healthy sort of way.

Which was why he didn't forbid his son from seeing his fath-from seeing Reigen. Reigen who had managed to live with a very gross curse stuck to his back, gross enough that Shigeo had seen it at a distance and run off to do something about it without telling anyone where he was going and damn near giving his mother and father a heart attack each. Shigeo had a gift, a curse, for making friends. He attached himself to everyone and anyone and he was hard to shake once he got it into his head that he liked you.

He decided that he liked Reigen.

And Serizawa…he had never wanted to see Reigen Arataka again in his life after what had happened, what he had done with Shigeko…before and after he realized that the woman he had been singing the praises of, had been in love with, had wanted to spend the rest of his life with was Kageyama Shigeko. Serizawa Shigeko. It was a city of two million people, running into each other should have been almost impossible, but it had happened. Fate was funny, that way, in the sense that objectively it must have been funny in a mean spirited sort of way. Him raising Reigen's….Reigen Arataka's….son…biological son…for almost a decade without incident, without the boy in question ever having any questions. Questions regarding why his hair was different than everyone else's in texture and even color, why his eyes were blue when everyone else's were brown, why he was so outgoing when the rest of his family might as well have been made up of hermit crabs…

Damn it, Shigeo, why do you have to be so nice all the time? So helpful? So-

Because Shigeko is your mother, that's why.

"Nope. Never going to happen. I'm going to grow up and live all alone like Uncle Minegishi and do whatever I want whenever I want it. I am not marrying a girl and having a baby, not ever, I've had enough of babies thank you very much. I'd rather have plants, or hamsters, or rocks." Said Shigeo with an air of finality that he could have only gotten from Shigeko's mother.

"Alright kiddo, enjoy living in solitude for the rest of your life. Drop us a line from wherever you end up in this crazy, mixed up, sideways, upside down, citrus flavored world." said Sho bopping him on the head with a balloon. Shigeo put up a barrier and crossed his arms.

"That is not what those are for, Uncle Sho, and you know it. If you aren't going to take this seriously then you can go and play Mario Kart with Yuzuko and Ritsuko and Hanako and Katsuko." Said Shigeo

"Really? Well if you insist!" said Sho before he made like he was going to take off. Ritsu grabbed him by the collar and passed him some tape. Ritsu had said, on a few occasions, that the children were spoiled. Mob didn't think so and neither did Serizawa. When you loved someone you gave them whatever they wanted because you wanted nothing more than their happiness.

She wanted nothing more than her husband's, the father of her children's, and the love of her…the person she loved's, happiness.

And he felt the same. Which was why he hadn't demanded a divorce when she told him that she wanted to make contact, friendly contact, with Reigen. Even though he would have been fully within his rights to. Even though she would have understood if he wanted to, if he thought that she was going to be unfaithful again, if he thought that she was still in love with Reigen. She had thought about it, passing thoughts in the middle of the night when she had stared up at the ceiling and gone over every single thing that she had ever done wrong in her life, what her life would have been like if they had divorced, never married, never slept together in the first place…not thoughts to indulge. This was her life now and she had to make the most of this.

Her life was her own.

He had told her that, Reigen, all those years ago. He had meant that she had to be her own person, she knew that, but that was not the only meaning that could have been taken from his words. She was responsible for her own life. She was the only one who could be held responsible for everything that had happened and it was on her to make the best of it. Which she was. She had a family who loved her and who she loved in return. It was her son's birthday party. Her daughter's would be coming up in a few weeks…thought that one would have been less stressful.

She hadn't invited Reigen to that party.

"It's going to be fine. We have enough food for everyone, we cleared the noise with the neighbors, a lot of things from Shigeo's Amazon wish list, the things he really wanted, got picked out so he'll he happy about that, all of his friends sent their RSVPs. It'll…it'll be fine. Even if the apartment is going to be full of people….Sho and your brother will help us…and it'll all be-" said Serizawa even though he really, really, really was not looking forward to this party. So many people, so much happening, just…so much. The girls' parties were always more subdued. A few friends and friends of the family, cake and ice cream, singing, presents, and then everyone said their goodbyes. Simple. Easy.

"That's not what I'm nervous about. Katsuya…you said that you had no problem with me saying that…he…could come…and Shigeo already invited him anyway and he's…he's never been to a single one of Shigeo's birthday parties…and now I realize what a bad idea this was." Said Mob

"That's…I mean if Shigeo wants him here and he doesn't…suspect…then it'll be fine. Really. I have no problem with this…I can't speak for Sho or your brother but it's going to be a big party, it always is, so it'll…it's going to be fine. Really." Said Serizawa. He was an adult, they were all adults, and if Reigen wanted to celebrate the occasion of Shigeo's birth than that was totally fine, really it was. Nothing wrong with coming out to show his support. They could all do it. They could all be friends. That was what this was, a celebration for family and friends.

Of which Reigen was somehow both and neither.

Reigen had no idea what he was even doing.

He had Mob's, Shigeko's, Mrs. Serizawa's address. His phone had given him the correct directions. Now he was here in front of a nondescript grey building in a decent neighborhood with a sign on the front glass doors that declared Serizawa Shigeo's birthday party to be taking place in apartment 220. Someone had even drawn a map, some child, maybe him…or not. There was a lot of pink, and glitter, and cat stickers…but, hey, that could have been him. Reigen didn't know. He had always been partial to pink his whole life.

He had still wrapped the kid's present in blue paper, though.

Because he didn't know much about the kid who he had met by chance and now, occasionally, followed him around when they ran into each other. Or maybe the kid sought him out. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. One day he'd just be minding his own business going to the store to pick up a back of smokes or getting some dinner or just taking a walk and the kid would suddenly be there, talk his ear off about something, usually a game or something his pets did or something that happened with his friends or how weird his sisters could be, he got the kid something cheap and nutrition-less for dinner, and then they parted ways.

It was always painful.

Because the kid looked exactly like him. Well he looked a lot like Mob. Black hair, not jet black like hers but nowhere near blond, pale skin, soft voice, long fingers, and even that same bowl cut though his hair was a lot shorter than Mob's had ever been…and she had cut her hair at some point in the time they had been apart…but her hair had never been as short as the kid's. That was because he was a boy. A son. Her son.

His son.

It had all but been confirmed for him in that first meeting….he had a son…and nobody had told him! anger came then as it did whenever he dwelled on it. Mob and Serizawa had both gone no contact with him, or maybe it had been mutual, but one day out of the blue he just…they could have said something! Anything! Because he had spent the past ten years of his life wallowing in a pool of his own self-pity. He occasionally climbed out and tried to live his life properly. He had gotten another soul crushing sales job, he hated it but he was good at it, made an effort to drink less, and had even tried his hand at dating. Actual dating, not one night stands in seedy love hotels. Women, this time, women his own age. Not teenage girls.

Actually he had made an effort to avoid all teenage girls for the rest of his life.

That was not a part of himself that he liked to acknowledge. He had been attracted to Mob and only Mob. He never gave himself another chance to be attracted to someone her age. He wanted to be with her, he loved her, and no matter how hard he had tried over the years he had never once stopped loving her. Not when she chose Serizawa over him. Not when she had stopped returning his calls and texts. Not even when she introduced him to her family, the one she had made with Serizawa.

Mob had five kids.

Four girls and a boy. He hadn't ever properly met the girls, all were shy like their dad it seemed, but he did know, somewhat, Shigeo. Mob's son. His….he had a son. A son that he…he had no idea that he had…but he was not going to yell at Mob about it even though he had spent so many nights lying awake in bed thinking about all of the awful things that he could have said to her, that he would have, but that he knew better than to ever say to her.

He wanted her back.

But that was not going to happen. She was married. She had five kids with another on the way. A sister-cousin for Shigeo. Mob was still so sweet, so wonderful, so giving. Reigen didn't think that he could do it, have a kid only to give it up, and he hadn't even been given a choice. If he'd been given a choice he would have been there for Shigeo. He would have taken Mob in to live with him if she needed it and he would have married her…event though he would have been a grown man married to a teenage girl…and he would have been a father to their child…no. That was just wishful thinking. In reality he would have asked Mob, begged her to, have an abortion. She was not ready at fifteen to be a mother and he was not ready at twenty nine to be a father and the whole thing would have been a complete and total shit show if she had gone through with the pregnancy-

Serizawa had risen to the occasion.

Reigen had never given him enough credit. Even when they had been friends he had always put Serizawa down, in his thoughts, and that was just unfair. Nobody should have felt that way about their friend. Ever. Even if that friend had stolen the love of his life from him. Serizawa was stronger than Reigen had ever imagined. He had been strong enough to raise another man's child for a decade, Serizawa was not stupid he knew where Shigeo came from, he had to…and he had still raised the kid.

He was strong.

Or maybe he was just weak when it came to Mob.

Wasn't everyone? He was weak, then, too. Too weak to enter a stupid apartment building and wish his own son a happy birthday. Too weak to be able to be in the same room as Mob for more than five minutes before he couldn't take it anymore, the mixture of anger and despair and love, too weak to-

Reigen moved his feet.

He opened the glass doors, found the elevator, and followed the arrows taped to the hallway walls on the second floor until he got to the scene of a disaster, it sounded like, or a mass murder. Mob's apartment. A dull roar could already be heard and he wondered, maybe, if it would cover up the sound of his hasty retreat. If maybe he should just leave his present by the door and run away…no. He couldn't. This was his son's birthday. The kid wanted him there, Mob wanted him there, and Serizawa had no problem with it.

He opened the door.

And was promptly shoved out onto his ass.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing here?!" Ah yes, how could he have forgotten? The little brother. The not so little brother, now. He hadn't seen Kageyama Ritsu since he was fourteen years old. He must have been about twenty five, now, and the years had been good to him. Even sprawled out on the ground Reigen could tell that Ritsu stood at least half a head taller than him. The perils of being on the short side, former angry teenage boys, now angry grown men, didn't even need psychic powers to make you want to piss yourself in fear.

"Answer me!" said Ritsu as he hauled Reigen to his feet with his powers. Oh no. Oh FUCK no. This guy…what the fuck was with this guy!? Millions of women in this city and he had to go and bother Shigeko! Nope. Nuh-huh. This was not ok. He hadn't been able to protect his big sister all those years ago when they were kids and this guy…this guy ended up ruining her life! She had to marry Serizawa because of this guy! She had to because this guy had just gotten her pregnant and left her high and dry like Ritsu had known he would! Serizawa was weird for having been into his sister, Ritsu had a daughter on the way now and he knew that he would literally murder any grown men who showed that kind of interest in her love be damned, but at least Serizawa had stuck around and been there for her through everything! Especially the kid that Reigen hadn't wanted to take responsibility for!

"Mob-" said Reigen before he was slammed into the wall behind him. Find. Let Ritsu toss him around. He wasn't the one who was going to have to pay for the damages plus Reigen hospital bills. For once Reigen hadn't done a damned thing to earn this kid's ire. Well…no. The kid, Shigeo, that was on Mob. She hadn't told him and she had gone through with having him. Reigen hadn't asked her to keep an entire human being a secret from him for a decade!

"Don't call her that! Do not ever call my sister that again….ever." said Ritsu. He was a kid, for a moment then, and so was Shigeko. Mob. Nobody had called her that since she had gotten married…when she was a kid…and he was a kid….and it was all Reigen's fault!

"Fine, Shigeko-" said Reigen

"No. You do not get to call her by her given name." said Ritsu lowly. He wanted to end Reigen right there…but he knew that if he did then he'd get arrested and thrown in prison and held ruin his nephew's birthday party and also he'd never see his adoptive daughter/ biological niece grow up…so killing Reigen or even injuring him were out…because he was an adult, now, and not an angry little kid too blinded by his own feelings to have any control over himself.

"**Mrs. Serizawa** invited me…and so did Shigeo-" said Reigen. Ritsu balled his fists at his side and Reigen braced himself for the hit that he was sure was coming. It may have, if Ritsu's little anger problem hadn't been dealt with in the ten years since he'd last seen him, but the dinging of the elevator and heavy footsteps carrying down the hallway saved him.

"Hi Mr. Kageyama! Hi other Mister!" said a kid as he ran past them, threw the door opened, and let it swing shut behind him. Ritsu, who had been about to hit Reigen, seemed to come to his sense. His posture became more neutral and his eyes had less of a crazy glint to them. Heavy footsteps plodded down the hallway and some light, caught off of the shiny wrapping paper of a gift, hit Reigen in the eye.

"Mr. Kageyama, can you get the door for me? I'm afraid my hands are a bit full. I hope that you don't mind, I brought just a few things so that Mrs. Serizawa wouldn't have to cook in her condition…oh! I'm sorry, I hadn't realized that you'd gotten another roommate. I'm Iz-" said a woman about Reigen's age completely over encumbered by warming trays. She seemed to be about the right age to have a child….a child as old as his son…as Mob's son. Mob had aged so well…because she wasn't even thirty yet….not line or wrinkle anywhere. Her hair might have been shorter and she might have gained some weight but time seemed to have been passing her by…because she hadn't even hit thirty…yet…

"The party's inside, my sister or her husband will help you with the food." Said Ritsu. Well now a different sort of anger was settling inside of him…and it was already mixing with the anger that Reigen was responsible for….and now he really was in danger of spending his nephew's birthday party in lockup because Reigen was **still there.**

"Leave. Now. Before I do something that I'll regret." Said Ritsu

"I was invited-" said Reigen

"I don't give a fuck! Ok?! You are going to…to fuck everything up! Just leave my sister alone already! Haven't you ruined her life enough! This is all your fault!" said Ritsu motioning around himself. He didn't have time to give Reigen a comprehensive list of all of the ways he had ruined Shigeko's life, from the teenage pregnancy, the fact that she never went to university, the marriage to Serizawa, the way too many kids, the strained relationship between her and their parents…hell, the fact that his parents had been on the brink of divorce for decades! The fact that mom had spent his teen years in various states of drunkenness! The fact that dad checked out of the family after Shigeo was born! The fact that if it weren't for Reigen then maybe he would have had a better relationship with his own parents, it had been Reigen's fault that Shigeko had outed him in the first place! Hell, Reigen was the reason that he and Sho almost broke up, too, since Sho had sided with Serizawa and Ritsu had sided with his sister after Shigeo had been born with blue eyes and brown hair and-and-and he loved the kid and this was not about him! He could not control who his father was!

"The fact that your landlord hasn't updated the wallpaper or carpeting in this hallway since I was your age is my fault?" asked Reigen sarcastically. It was an impulse. He was corner. Ritsu had him cornered and when he got cornered the first thing he lost control of was his mouth. It wasn't the best move because before he knew it Ritsu had him practically by the throat…

Yup. There was that crazy glint in his eyes again.

"You ruined my sister's life. You ruined my family's lives. You almost cost me the love of my life. Get. The. Fuck. Out." Said Ritsu. He could see his aura, which meant that it was visible, which meant that one of the many people who could see auras would come out to investigate…and he hoped to God that it wouldn't be one of the kids..

It was worse.

"Are you seriously that pissed about the quiche? I mean, yeah, who the hell brings…quiche…to a kid's…party…?" said Sho as he went out to the hallway to investigate why, exactly, his husband's was lighting up the building like the end of a summer festival. He assumed that it was because the kids were being loud and kind of annoying. Not to Sho, of course, he loved kids and he loved being the kid wrangler…and he wished, now, that Ritsu had been freaking out by the kids being little terrors….

No way.

No fucking way.

He had better control than Ritsu when it came to these things. He didn't say another word, he just pried Ritsu's fingers away from Reigen's throat. There was no way that Sho was letting Ritsu get himself arrested at Shigeo's birthday party. His sisters had already overwrote his save files and showed his friends the stuffed cat he slept with, the kid did not need this on top of all of that. Also Ritsu would have gone to prison, esper prison, which according to dad was way worse than regular prison.

"Hey, come on, I've got this. You just go inside and hold down the fort. Serizawa's about to have a heart attack and you're sister's taking one of her thrice hourly pee breaks. Someone's got to guard the cake and I think you'll do a better job than me. Hurry up before Hanako gets her fingers in it." Said Sho softly. He held Ritsu's hand in his. He didn't care who saw, not really. All he cared about was keeping Ritsu safe from himself and containing what was sure to turn into an unmitigated disaster if not dealt with now. Sho had gone up against the entirety of Claw, including his own father, when he was just thirteen years old. He could handle kicking Reigen out.

He had been such a cool guy. Before he seduced Ritsu's big sis and made her break Serizawa's heart into a million pieces. But he forgave her. She thought with her dick, metaphorically speaking, but she had said sorry and Serizawa had forgiven her and Shigeo was a great kid despite who his father was so, really, the only person left to be angry with was Reigen.

Because being angry with Ritsu's big sis had almost cost him the love of his life.

"I'm handling this." said Ritsu softly. Sho pressed his forehead against his husbands.

"Ritsu, you've done a lot, let me take it from here. The kid…if someone's going to get it for fucking up Shigeo's birthday party then let it be me. Come on, you have farther to fall than I do Mr. Responsible, Has a Job and a Uni Degree, Uncle." Said Sho, his head still pressed against Ritsu's. Reigen was taken aback by the blatantly intimate gesture. He was also happy for them, at the back of his mind, because those two had made it.

"If you need me, call me." Said Ritsu softly. He needed to cool off. He needed one of those beers in the adults only cooler. Or two. Or ten. No, not so many. He'd have to run interference so that sister or Serizawa didn't find out that Reigen had just shown up out of the blue. Ritsu knew that the signs and the Friendbook page for the party had been a bad idea…and he knew that Reigen was lying about being invited. He had eleven years to start being a father to his son, why start now?

"So, I take it that this is for Shige? Unless it's a late birthday present for me, that is." Said Sho as he picked up a slightly dented birthday present hastily wrapped, it seemed, in plain blue paper. Shigeo liked purple, all of Serizawa's kids did.

"It's for Shigeo, and I really was invited-" said Reigen. Sho didn't say anything, he just opened the door and went inside the apartment. Reigen was, momentarily, deafened as he caught a glimpse of the insanity inside of that party. There were kids everywhere, some were doing swan dives off of a TV stand and onto the couch, some were chasing each other around with silly string, and one was just standing in the middle of it all with a thousand yard stare and a bowl of cheesy chips clutched in her arms.

That one looked like Mob.

Hair like a poodle, sure, but still Mob's. He craned his neck to try and get a glimpse inside, deeper inside, to see his…to see Mob's son. The crowd was so thick…and the kids kept on running around…and if he went in, he wanted to go in, he had been invited to this fucking bedlam that was a kid's party, but he didn't.

He didn't want to spend the rest of the day in the emergency room…or the morgue,

A soon as the door closed it opened again and before he could get another glimpse at the chaos a paper plate was shoved into his arms and a party had was plopped down onto his head. The elastic band slapped him on the back of the head, hard, and Reigen suspected that it might have been intentional on Sho's part.

"Well it looks like it's getting late, maybe you ought to start hitting the road, huh Reigen? Here's a to go plate, hope you like quiche, canapes, and fruit salad. We aren't doing gifts yet but we'll take pictures and you can see Shige open yours on Friendbook…or better yet I'll mail them to you. Well, so nice to see you, but I think my husband might be dying in there so…later!" said Sho. He turned to leave. Reigen knew that the smart thing to do would have been to let him leave, let him go through that door and leave Reigen out in the hallway where he belonged…but since when had he ever done the smart thing?

"She did invite me you know. Mob. Shigeko. Mrs. Serizawa." said Reigen quietly. He knew Sho…well he had known Sho over a decade ago. He had been a good kid, a little hyper and occasionally annoying but still a good kid. He had been the only one, besides Mob, to temper Ritsu's more violent impulses. He could, maybe, be reasoned with.

"I don't care, ok? Just…stop it. Stop trying to get with her, ok?" said Sho

"I'm not trying to-" said Reigen

"Come on, why else would you be coming around her after all this time? And don't give me some spiel about wanting to be a father to Shige. He's got a father, Serizawa, and the position of Uncle has been taken as well so you can just beat it, ok? Just…leave Ritsu's big sis alone." Said Sho

"I'm not here to try and…and get with Mob. She's married, now, and…and you're right, I am here for Shigeo. I know that I can never be a father to him…not that I ever had the chance…but I can be a…friend…I guess." Said Reigen. He tried to appeal to the good heart that he knew Sho must have still had under there. He looked like he was still the same kid, pale and gangly with hair that defied gravity, just taller. He had always been a nice kid, a good kid, and surely he could have found it in his heart to-

Laugh in Reigen's face.

"Do you hear that? That kid in there has enough friends for TWO lifetimes, he doesn't need another one, ok? And I'm not dumb. You're still into Ritsu's big sis, I've seen enough of Ritsu's dramas to know how this is going to play out. You come in after all of these years and all kinds of feelings are rekindled and then you sweep her off her feet and she divorces her husband and you and her play house. I watch TV, I know what happens in these situation." Said Sho

"This isn't television, this is real life, and I am not after Mob…I'm not. I just…you know I had no idea that I even had a kid, right? For ten goddamned years I had no idea that I even had a son and Mob…you know she had no plans of telling me, right? You know she still hasn't come out and just…said…it? Right?" asked Reigen

"Why should we go around talking about something we already know to be true? Seems like a waste of words to me." Said Sho

"He doesn't know…and I know not to tell him. You're right…he has a father…and I am not that man to him but…he's still my son and-" said Reigen

"So? You weren't the one who Ritsu's big sis was with when she was pushing him out of herself. Hell, I was there and you weren't…and don't give me that crap about you not knowing. You were into her. You were always all in her business and stuff, you knew, but that's fine. Sometimes parents leave, sometimes fathers are pieces of shit, sometimes mothers-" said Sho

"Your fucked up parents are not everyone else's fucked up parents, ok? Get it through you thick skull. I. Did. Not. Know. Ok? I had no idea that I had a son…and now I do. Just…imagine you have a son-" said Reigen

"I have a daughter on the way." said Sho crossing his arms. He hoped that Shoko never got herself into these jams. He used to think that love was just love, and he still kind of thought that, he knew that Serizawa was a good guy…but Reigen wasn't. If Shoko ended up with a guy a million years older than her Sho hoped that it was a guy like Serizawa, not Reigen…or a girl, too. He had no room to judge and no desire to make those kinds of judgements.

"Fine. Imagine that…it's yours, right? Not Ritsu's? The kid I mean." Said Reigen. Sho give him his best 'what in the ever loving fuck?' face.

"Yeah….because otherwise the kid would be born with, like, gills or horns or a tail or something….." said Sho slowly.

"Just asking, just asking. I mean the term sister-cousin was thrown around a lot…not half-sister…so, yeah." Said Reigen. Of course he only had the word of an eleven year old to go off of when it came to this.

"Well Shoko would be the kids' sister cousin because I'm their uncle and Ritsu's big sis is her mom and it's her egg and insidey parts, too." Said Sho

"Why not get an egg donor just to keep confusion down?" asked Reigen

"Because I wanted it to share blood with Ritsu and his parents. They kept on going on and on about how the Kageyama name would die with him and shit like that so she's going to be Kageyama Shoko on her birth certificate, maybe, if they'll let us. I don't know, it's so stupid, the kids automatically get the father's family name unless he's unnamed on the birth certificate and this kid isn't Serizawa's and I'm not you, so….yeah." said Sho

"….I really didn't know, you know, about Shigeo. I didn't know and…and I want to be in his life in some capacity. It's like if Mob took this baby from you and hid it." Said Reigen

"….like a kidnapping?" asked Sho

"No, I mean…like if you got her pregnant and-" said Reigen

"Whoa! Hold up! First of all, I would never cheat on Ritsu even if you held a gun to my dick and second of all I would never do that to Serizawa either, same circumstances, and third of all I don't even like girls like that! Hence the whole marriage ceremony but no license thing and the extra complicated taxes, too." Said Sho

"Not literally! Just…ok…pretend you're straight and you're single and Mob's single and you get her pregnant and it's that same kid, Shoko, right? Growing inside of her only you have no fucking clue that she's pregnant…and also she's been sleeping with, in a relationship with, your best friend…and you love her…but she drops all contact with you and you get over her but then you run into her and your best friend and almost half a dozen kids just…out in the world….and it's all like, why the fuck does this kid look like me?! And-" said Reigen losing his patience. Yup. Sho hadn't changed. The one kid who could always send his patience meter straight to zero without even trying. Well, man, now. Sho hadn't grown up it seemed, he had just grown taller.

"Hey, what are you kids looking at?" asked Sho. Reigen shut up immediately. There, at the end of the hallway, was a group of kids around Shigeo's age gawking at the sight before them.

"Nothing, Mr. Suzuki." Said one of the kids. The others nodded in agreement.

"Good. Now come in, party's in here! Hurry up before you miss, well, everything." Said Sho motioning to the door. The kids rushed past them and threw the door opened. The hallway was filled, once again, with the dull roar of an eleven year old's birthday party. Reigen caught sight of the inside of the apartment again. He wanted to go in, to see his son, to see where his son was living and who his friends were and if he was…if he was happy. Even though Reigen could hear, with his own ears, and see with his own eyes that the kid was happy but he wanted to know if the kid was actually…actually happy. If he'd had a good life. If he had been happy. He knew, from the few times the kid would find him and give him the comprehensive 'Serizawa Shigeo' report that he…there were things that made him happy and things that made him unhappy…but Reigen just wanted to know…

Was Shigeo anything like him?

He'd been an unhappy child. There had been so much bullshit going on in his life when he was eleven. His parents had hated each other and finally gotten that divorce that they had so desperately needed….and at the time he hadn't taken it well even though it had to happen…but Shigeo was different. His home life was different…even though Reigen had no idea what that home life really was. He had no idea what his son…what he really felt. What he liked to eat for breakfast. If he truly didn't get along with his siblings or if…or if it was just normal eleven year old stuff. He had no idea, still, what his son even considered to be normal eleven year old stuff. Mob had considered exorcisms and evil spirits to be normal when she was his age…

Mob had been eleven when he'd first met her.

And now she was pushing thirty.

And he had gotten so old. He had gotten old and the kids had just gotten older. They had gotten taller. They were still the same. He wondered if his son had grown older or taller. He wondered if his son was growing to go old and wise or taller, just taller, while still staying the same. Reigen knew that he hadn't grown older and wiser, no, he had just grown taller, well, fatter over the years. He was still the same person, the same idiot, that he had always been.

"I imagined it and it hurts. Ok, so you're hurt and I'm sorry that you're hurt and I'm sorry if Ritsu's big sis kept…kept him from you…but you have got to realize that the past is in the past and…and if you come back then all of that shit is going to start up again. She…Ritsu's big sis already cheated with you, twice, and I know that it's none of my goddamned business what you guys do but it also kind of is seeing as how last time you got Ritsu's big sis to sleep with you my best friend almost spent the rest of his life in his room and my husband and I almost broke up so, yeah, I'm making this my business and-" said Sho. He was not Ritsu, he was not going to kick Reigen's ass because that would have been counterproductive. Reigen was a guy who respected words and words were what Sho was going to give him. Well he would have kept on giving him if the door hadn't opened again.

"Sho? Who are you fighting with?" asked Mob as she opened the door just a crack. It was so loud in there, too loud, that she welcome the distraction. Even though this distraction was not entirely welcomed. This was…she saw him. She had seen him before, of course, but it never failed to knock her over, the fact that he had gotten so much older. She had expected him to stay the same, as he had in her mind, but of course he didn't. His hair had some silver in it and his face had some lines and he had gained some weight…he was about forty or so, now, so of course he would have changed. Of course he wouldn't have been the same as he had been when they had met, when she had been Shigeo's age, time stopped for no one.

Too much time had passed.

She wished that it hadn't but it had. Eleven years had passed and now…now it was this. He was there and he was older and she was older and everyone was older. It was a birthday party, a celebration of getting older, though she didn't have much to celebrate. Not for herself, no, but for her son. This was his celebration. The apartment was full of his friends, friends and people he had collected…and at some point his father, his actual father, had become one of those people in his life who he'd collected and invited to this celebration of the passage of yet another year.

"Mob…I mean Shigeko….or Mrs. Serizawa…I guess…" said Reigen softly. There she was. He had seen her before, of course, and it never failed to shock him, just a little, that she wasn't fifteen years old anymore. Almost thirty. Taller. Shorter hair. Big as a house…not a nice thought to have but, yes, she was big as a house. She was bigger because there was another human being growing inside of herself. She had grown…she was growing….another human being within herself so, yes, she had an excuse for being like…that.

He didn't, unless you counted his terrible diet as an excuse.

"Mob is fine, or Shigeko, I don't really care. Reigen…thank you for coming. Shigeo will be happy to see you." Said Mob trying her best to sound polite. She hadn't accounted for how Ritsu and Sho would have reacted. She had thought, hoped, that those hard feelings were long gone. That it had been enough time, enough time had gone by, that it had all been forgotten. But of course it had not been forgotten. It would never be forgotten…and she had been so dumb to think that just because eleven years had gone by it would all be forgotten. The past wasn't in the past at all, no, the past was standing in her hallway wearing a birthday hat and arguing with her little brother in law.

"Don't worry, Big Sis, I'm kicking this guy out. I mean, I know that you didn't actually invite him-" said Sho

"I did. Well Shigeo invited him first and then I said, I asked Katsuya, and he said that it was ok. It really is, Sho, ok? You don't have…have to worry." Said Mob. Her aura reached out to Sho's. He shook his head.

"Come on, you don't have to lie to me." Said Sho

"I'm telling the truth. Reigen…I invited him to Shigeo's last birthday, too, and he didn't come but I'm happy that he's here, now, because….all of that stuff is over. I made mistakes, a lot of mistakes, but all of that is over now and…and I can handle this, ok? So please just…can you go in and save Ritsu and Katsuya? There are a lot of kids in there and it's freaking Katsuko out." Said Mob. Her eyes never left Reigen and Reigen's eyes never left hers. She wished that she could have said something like she had forgotten how blue his eyes were, or something, but of course she hadn't. Not when she had been seeing it every single day for the past eleven years….

"I can't do this….and neither can….I don't know. Just…don't fuck up again, I guess." Said Sho for lack of anything else. He chose to believe, then, that Ritsu's big sis was not at all into Reigen. That was something that he had to believe otherwise they were all going to go back to square one and that wouldn't have been good for the kids. Any of the kids. Her kids…and his kid. He knew how fast families could fall apart and he was not going to lose this one…but he was also not a kid anymore. People could handle themselves and he did not need to be sticking himself into their business. No, he didn't need to be right there but he could be on standby in case Reigen decided to try…anything. Shigeo was his kid, after all, and even his own father had tried to see him and be more of a father to him after the whole world domination thing…and Reigen wasn't even half the asshole that dad was…so maybe this would all be ok.

And if not, well, that would really suck for everyone involved.

"Well that was certainly…pleasant." Said Reigen after Sho disappeared through the door. He tried, again, to catch a glimpse of the chaos but saw only, well, chaos. Chaos without his son in it. Chaos that involved kids hitting each other with what looked like pool noodles and screaming.

"I'm sorry that Ritsu and Sho were mean to you. I didn't…I forgot to tell them…or maybe I thought that if I didn't tell them then maybe it wouldn't be so bad." Said Mob. She rested her hands on her stomach, then, because she was so nervous that Shoko was trying to kick her way out and into the world a couple weeks too early. Shigeo had been like that, too. The others had just sort of gone along for the ride. Yuzuko, if anything, had stayed along for too long. Shoko wasn't like that. She wanted out and so did Mob…sort of. She wanted to be there, with him, with Reigen, and she also wanted to run away and hide because she still wanted…

There was a difference between what she wanted and what was the right thing to do. She knew this now.

"Mob…hey. Just…hey. How've you…been?" asked Reigen staring at her stomach even though he knew that he shouldn't have. It was like his brain was glitching out. There was the image he had of Mob, his Mob, as she had been when she had actually been HIS…and then there was Mob as she existed in the present. He so rarely saw her, hell he so rarely texted her, and now she was there and…and he still loved her so much.

Even pregnant with another man's child, even with the sound her own other children's voices ringing in his hears, he still loved her.

"Fine. Tired. Very tired." Said Mob

"I can see why. So, is it a party in there or a circus?" asked Reigen

"I don't even know anymore. Shigeo…he has a lot of friends." Said Mob. He flinched when he said his son's, her son's, their son's, name. She wondered what he would have called Shigeo had he been there. He might not have even liked his name…nobody did. Everyone said that it was uncreative. She didn't get it. Shigeo, child of Shigeko. It made sense. That way people knew that he was her son. Like Shoko, daughter of Sho. At least someone got it. She wondered if Reigen would have gotten it. He wondered what Reigen would have called their son…

That didn't matter now.

"Yeah…that's a lot of kids in there…not that I, you know, saw it. They were nice enough to give me some food, at least, before kicking me out." Said Reigen motioning towards his party plate of appetizers that he was amazed someone would think to bring to an eleven year old boy's birthday party. Hell, the kid might have liked it, even. He didn't know much about his own kid. Shigeo didn't usually talk about himself, just things in his life that he had a problem with, and he also asked his own incessant questions. Nothing that Reigen wasn't prepared to answer, no, and nothing that Shigeo shouldn't have been asking.

"You can…Shigeo invited you so you can come in if you want." Said Mob

"Mob…I want to…but I can't." said Reigen. Selfish. Him, wanting to be there, was selfish. He had been selfish…he had spent his entire life being selfish. He had bene selfish to love her, selfish to reject her, selfish to take her to bed, and selfish to do it again a second time, and selfish to want to do it again even now. Selfish. Not that she hadn't been selfish, then…but she'd had an excuse. She had been young, fifteen, and had been by nature a selfish person. Now she was a grown woman and him…he was probably the last thing on her mind. What they'd had.

Why else would she have kept this from him for all of these years.

"Why not? The door isn't opened and Shigeo…he'll be happy to see you." Said Mob. Shigeo was, currently, chasing his friends around with silly string. At least he had stopped using his powers. He might not even have noticed Reigen, at this point, but the gesture was still nice…

"I get the feeling that it won't be such a good idea." Said Reigen rubbing his neck with his free hand. He did not feel like getting beaten up. No way. As much as he wanted to be in there, to see his son, he knew…it would be a bad idea. Not that he was going to say anything that he shouldn't have, that would have been selfish and stupid, but he just wanted to…to see him. He just appeared, sometimes, when he would be out and about in the world…but that wasn't enough. He didn't even have a picture…

"Let me decide that. I invited you so…do I get to decide if you can come in." Said Mob. She knew that this wasn't the best idea but Shigeo…but she wanted to see him. She had been wanting to see him for so…just to see him. Nothing more. She had missed him. He had been such a bug part of her life and then…and then she had to go and ruin it all…but maybe they could have a second chance.

At something.

But not what she wanted.

"So now you're saying I can?" asked Reigen bitterly

"I feel like you're saying two things there. You know I'm not good at this sort of thing, these talking sorts of things, so please just say what you mean and mean what you say." Said Mob

"Fine. Mob…I've been wanting to…to ask you why you never told me? You had ten years to tell me about him but you didn't." said Reigen trying his best to stay calm.

"Because…because I couldn't. I wanted to be with you so badly but I couldn't…I wanted to be with you but if I left Katsuya I would have been breaking his heart and I couldn't do that. I asked him to break up with me, to not love me anymore, but he said that he couldn't. He said that he would love me no matter what…and I guess that I wanted to hear that. I don't know, I was fifteen and I thought that I was an adult. You were right, you know." Said Mob

"About what?" asked Reigen

"That I wasn't ready, that I was too young. I was, I really was. I thought that relationships were…I didn't know about all of the adults parts. Not just the…intimacy…but all of the other parts, too. I thought that because I was doing so many adult things that I was an adult and I…I knew that I had made a mistake but I thought that I should have been grateful that someone loved me-" said Mob

"I loved you." Said Reigen. He meant it. He loved her from the very beginning and he had been selfish to reject her. She had been selfish to lay her heart down at his feet when she was only fifteen and he had no choice but to initially reject her but she…she could have waited but she didn't.

But there was no sense in going over ancient history.

"I loved….I loved you too…but you rejected me and I…I was fifteen and stupid and I had something to prove and then…and then all of this happened. Ok? I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about Shigeo but how could I? I'm sorry-" said Mob

"But." Said Reigen

"But?" asked Mob

"But. You always say that you're sorry but there's always a 'but' at the end." Said Reigen

"So? I am sorry but I couldn't tell you about Shigeo because it…my life was already…I was fifteen years old, married, and I had a baby. I didn't seen any point in telling you that my son had blue eyes. That wasn't even proof….lots of babies are born with blue eyes and Katsuya has no idea who his father was. He's got mixed ancestry to Shigeo….he didn't look as much like you when he was born. He looked like-" said Mob

"He looked like an angry, red, potato. Not a red potato but a normal one with eczema, so glad that cleared up by way." Mob turned so fast she almost made herself sick. She had been so absorbed in what she was doing that she didn't even noticed Minegishi get within her range. She colored a bit in embarrassment. Right. Maybe carrying on right in front of her doorway was not the best place for this conversation.

"Hi Minegishi…you remember Reigen, right? We were just-" said Mob

"Don't mind me, I'm just going to drop this off for the little monster and tell him happy birthday. You couldn't pay me to sit through a kid's birthday party, even with the show." Said Minegishi walking past them. He'd heard enough. Well now, he could see a lot of long whine fests about the state of her relationship coming. Sometimes it was hard to be best friends with the most powerful esper on Earth but, hey, she wasn't about to fire him any time soon so he'd might as well get used to the job.

"Be careful, Sho bought them a hundred cans of silly string." Said Mob as she made way for Minegishi. Judging by the shape of his gift it was another book. She hoped that Shigeo accepted the gift gracefully…and if not, well, Minegishi would have understood. He was nice, still, even though he insisted that the older he got the meaner he got.

"Mob…Shigeko…this might not be the best place for this." said Reigen after Mob's friend…he knew that guy from somewhere…he'd think about it later, went into the den of chaos. They should not have been having it out right there in the hallway. What would the guests think? What would the neighbors think? What would…right. He was still doing it, wasn't he? Worrying about what everyone else thought…and she was still doing it, too, not giving a fuck what everyone else thought. That was how they had gotten here in the first place.

"No…it's not…but I'm…I am sorry about how it all turned out." Said Mob

"Me too." Said Reigen

"I really am….I mean…sometimes I think about what could have happened. If I had waited for you, if I hadn't gotten with Katsuya, if I hadn't had Shigeo…and the rest of them. I do wonder, sometimes, and I…I am sorry about not telling you." Said Mob

"Mob-" said Reigen

"You're the only one who calls me that, you know. Nobody's called me Mob since…since before Shigeo was born. That was hard, a hard thing to adjust to, being called Shigeko all the time…but it wasn't as hard as being Mrs. Serizawa….I was not ready to be Mrs. Serizawa…I don't even think that I'm ready, now, sometimes…" said Mob

"Then why even go through with it in the first place? And why have so many kids? What, are you guys trying to repopulate Japan or something? I mean I know that the birth rate is falling but, just, why?" asked Reigen

"I guess….back then, when I was pregnant with Shigeo, even before Shigeo I felt like…like there was this one path that adults followed and I just…I wanted to be an adult so badly, more than anything else in the world. I think because…because you said that I was too young for you. I just had something to prove and then I made a mistake…well a few mistakes, actually. I was never good about taking my medicine and it turns out that my powers mess with it too, that's why I have so many children, and then after I figured out that I was pregnant I just…I was trapped. Katsuya was so depressed after I told him about…what happened between us…that second time but when…when I came back from my first doctor's appointment he was so happy…and I didn't want to ruin his life. I didn't want to make him live in his room for the rest of his life…and I still don't. He knows that he's not Shigeo's fath-maker, he doesn't care, and he's been so good to the others…what I want doesn't matter. I have other people to think about." Said Mob

"What you want matters too. You matter, Mob." Said Reigen. He did something stupid, then, and took her hand in his. He had forgotten what a gift it was to be able to hold her hand. He had forgotten how…how truly wonderful it was...

She held his hand back.

"I want….I want a lot of things…" said Mob. She was holding his hand for the first time in eleven years…and she had forgotten what it felt like. What it felt like to love and be loved by him. The joy of it, the warmth, all of it. His love had been less…draining….than her husband's. Less work. Love was…their love was…

"Me too. There are so many things that…that I want…that I've wanted for so long…" said Reigen. He took a step closer to her. She took a step closer to him.

"I…I've missed you so much Mast-Reigen. Reigen." said Mob softly. She could smell him…she hadn't smelled him in so long but there…he had changed aftershaves, cut back on the green tea, and didn't smell even vaguely of incense but the smell, the one that could simply be described as 'Reigen Arataka' lingered on. It transmuted itself from memory to flesh just as he had. It had been flung forwards ten, eleven, years into the future, no, the present…

"Mob…Shigeko….Mob…oh my….oh my God, I have missed you so much too…" said Reigen. His hand, his other hand, found her lower back and the thought, a dangerous thought, enters his mind. He could kiss her. He had forgotten it, almost, the rapturous joy that was a kiss from Mob…and he wanted to remember. He wanted to take that memory and bring it to life…

"Me…too…" said Mob before she took a step forward.

And stopped.

Because she couldn't go forward anymore.

She was too big, now, much too big. A well placed kick from Shoko reminded her where she was….WHO she was. She could not do this. Acting selfishly, acting recklessly, had been what had gotten her life up to this point. She was someone's wife, someone's mother, someone's sister, someone's sister in law…the weight of it all settled right there on her lower back where his hand was.

She stepped back.

She put her hand to her lower back and leaned backwards. Maybe her back hurt. Maybe it didn't. Maybe she was just reminding herself why doing what she had been about to do would have been the worst idea possible. Maybe she was just reminding him. She could so easily get what she wanted, step close, smoosh Shoko, and kiss Reigen…but that was not the thing to do. She was not that person anymore. She wasn't fifteen anymore, she was almost twenty seven now, and she could not act like that. As a child did. As a child had done.

She had been such a child, back then.

But she was not a child now.

"This isn't a good idea." Said Reigen, his eyes never leaving her stomach. Even big with another man's child he still wanted to be with her. Even standing outside of her son's, of their son's birthday party he wanted nothing more than to kiss her and make her his. Selfish. He was still that same selfish man he had always been. He hadn't grown older, no, not at all.

"I-I know." Said Mob

"I should…I should go." Said Reigen. He couldn't handle it. Not after what he had almost done. He could not walk right through that door and be…be whatever it was that he was expected to be for that kid. Not after he had almost just…no. Not the time. He didn't know when the time would come but this would not be it.

"You…you can stay." Said Mob even though she knew that it would be a bad idea. Even after all of this time…she still wanted to be with him. Even after she had grown so much…no, not at all. She was still so, incredibly, **selfish**.

"No, I'm…I'm going to go. I'll talk to Shigeo later, maybe visit when it's not so…busy. Just…it was good seeing you again, Mob." Said Reigen. He gave her hand one more squeeze before he took off. Down the hall, down the elevator, past some partygoers, and off down the street. He didn't look back, he couldn't look back. Not at her. Not at their son. Not at the life she had. Not at the life…the life that they all could have had together. This was his fault, all of it. He'd missed his shot and now he'd have to live with the consequences.

Something broke inside of him.

It hurt, the familiar hurt, one that he had been trying to avoid for years. She was gone, well and truly gone, and he was the one who had pushed her away. That could have been him, up there, with her but instead he was…he was alone. All alone. And it hurt. He had broken so much between them…broken it al irreparably…

No, she had been the one to make her own choices…

Choices that he had made her make. He was the one who'd had unprotected sex with her on the office couch that night all those years ago. He was the one who couldn't own up to what he had done. He was the one that had rejected her in the first place. He was the one who had broken her heart and sent her running to Serizawa…

He had broken her heart.

He had broken his own heart.

And there was no putting it together. At this point there was nothing that either of them could do. This was life, their lives, their broken lives. There was not enough tape and glue to even begin putting the pieces of their lives together…let alone their hearts. Broken. Totally broken. This had been one to many breaks, the one break too many, and now there…there was no fixing it…

After all, nothing breaks like a heart.


	31. Conclusion 3: Mother and Son

Mob had a very good reason to be outside on the hottest day of the year.

And that reason was named Kageyama Shigeo.

She checked her phone. His train should have been coming in soon. The 12:05 frim Baked Goods City. Well the line started a lot farther up than that but it was coming in from Baked Goods City. A long trip. She felt the bottle of milk in her bag. Good, it hadn't gotten warm yet. She had made an effort to stand in the shade. It was hot, the start of summer, and it would only get hotter as the summer wore on. Thank God they had finally gotten some proper air conditioning. The summers had been unbearable, before, but now they would be tolerable. An air conditioner in every room. They could finally afford it.

One for her and her husband.

One for her son and her daughter.

One in the living/dining room.

He had complained about the electric bill, her husband, but he had complained even more about the heat over the years. When it came time to replace the air conditioner, it had to come out of their own money since the landlord said that theirs was still technically operational, suddenly they had more important things to spend their money on. They didn't have a lot of it, true, but Mob was not spending another summer simmering in the heat.

Not in her present condition, anyway.

The train pulled in right on time. Mob watched it slow down and then come to a stop. She scanned the crowds of departing passengers. A few auras, dim ones, nothing like her son's. Shigeo had inherited her gifts. It hadn't even been a question of whether or not he would end up an esper. Everyone knew that he would considering who his parents were.

She felt his aura before she saw him.

There, a dot of purple in a sea of people. She saw his aura and then she saw him. The top of his head, first, his hair all puffed up and wild. She frowned. He was too old now, much too old, for her to plop the bowl down on his head and get to cutting. She still did that for her own bangs, she saw nothing wrong with the bowl cut, but had been forbidden from going anywhere near her daughter's hair with a pair of scissors. She really didn't get it. The bow-cut had been working for her since she was three years old…but then again neither of her children had inherited her hair type.

She wondered if this one would.

The puffy, fluffy, tuft of hair got closer. The crowd parted as it got to the exit. She could see him more clearly, now, her son. Shigeo. Fourteen and…and tall. Very tall. She hadn't seen him in person since Christmas. The closest she had come was Skyping him…and he had never stood up for those. Wow. He was almost as tall as Ritsu!

"Shige. You grew." Said Mob as her son stopped in front of her. Now the difference in their heights had become more pronounced. She was still only one hundred and fifty three centimeters tall. She had stopped growing when she was about his age. The doctor said that tended to happen when one had a child when they were still growing. Shigeo must have been about one hundred and seventy five centimeters tall, now, and it was…when had he gotten that tall?

"Yeah…I grew a lot this year…um…so did you…" said Shigeo. His eyes drifted lower. He read her shirt. Precious cargo. She watched his aura. He was…surprised? But she had told him about Shoko many times…but even at thirty, well not quite thirty, she was not the best at communicating. With words, anyway.

"Yes. Shoko's almost done now. Do you want to say 'hi'?" said Mob. She poked at Shoko a little to get her kicking again. The other two, Shigeo and Takako, hadn't kicked as much as Shoko did. If Mob didn't know better she would have sworn that Shoko was twins, or maybe even triplets, but now she was just one kid. She was just a lot like her father.

The things she did for her family.

Not that she was complaining. She would do anything for her little brother and his not entirely legally wed husband.

"Hi…hi little sister…little cousin! Sorry, little cousin." Said Shigeo as he rested his hand on her stomach. Shoko was kicking on her own, now, even though she barely had any room. Shigeo had hardly kicked at all. It had been enough to worry her…well everything had worried her back then. Her and everyone she knew.

Things were better now.

"It's ok. We're not even sure what she'll be…I mean what the government will call her, I mean." Said Mob.

"I hope nobody makes fun of her." said Shigeo

"I hope so, too…and I hope that they aren't making fun of you again, Shige." Said Mob. People had always made fun of her when she was growing up and history repeated itself when it came to her son. People had teased him all the way back when he was in preschool. That had been the adults that started it. People seemed to think that because she was so young it was ok to say all kinds of things…and she didn't know why. She had been fifteen when she had him, that was kind of young, but it wasn't like there was some magic age when it became acceptable to have children.

Though she did hope that Shigeo waited at least until he was done with school. Middle school and high school.

"They never stopped." Said Shigeo. Mob reached out and took his hand. Seasoning City, Baked Goods City, even that city that Tome swore existed on the moon people were alike all over it seemed. She didn't know why people made fun of Shigeo. He was such a good boy, the best son she could have asked for. Well he was her only son so she may have been a little bit biased but to her he was the best of her and his father. She just wished that other people could see him the way she saw him.

"Is it still about-" said Mob

"Yeah…and about a million other new things too." Said Shigeo quietly. She could see it, a flare in his aura. She took in that extra energy before he lost control of his powers. He had done that a lot when he was younger. That was the main reason that she had kept him in Seasoning City for so long. There was only one other esper in existence that could give and take energy and he was serving several consecutive life sentences….and also Mob didn't really like him that much, either. Not enough to leave her son with him. He was older now, he didn't need her by his side constantly to make sure he didn't end up breaking anything or anyone, but she still helped him out just to be safe.

"Mom….knock it off. I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm not going to lose control." Said Shigeo, his eyes downcast almost as if he thought that other people could see what was happening and judge him for it. He was fourteen now, a teenager, and he didn't want his mother hovering over him anymore…and she understood that. He was older and wanted his independence and all of that…but she was still his mother no matter how old he got.

"I know you aren't a child anymore. I just got worried. I forgot how good your control is. It's a lot better than mine was when I was your age. Mine and your dad's-" said Mob

"Dad says hi." Said Shigeo

"Tell him that I said hi back." Said Mob quickly. She and Katsuya…they didn't speak much these days….and never about anything other than Shigeo. His grades, his wellbeing, things like that. There was nothing else, really, to talk about. They had done all of their talking, and shouting, all of those years ago. When she broke up with him and he went back to his mother and she had their son all alone…

Well not entirely alone.

"Where's Reigen and Takako?" asked Shigeo

"They're keeping our place in line. If you're not there when they call your table they don't wait, they just skip you." Said Mob. She tried to take her son's bag but he just picked it up and threw it over his shoulder. There it was, that independence thing. No matter how long Mob lived she would never understand what was so embarrassing about having your mom help you out. Her mom had been in invaluable help when Shigeo was born. Well once she threw out her voice from yelling and got a stern talking to from the cops for hitting people. Arataka still had that scar through his eyebrow from when she hit him with her ring hand, though, and Katsuya's mother never did end up getting that chipped tooth filled in…but that was years ago and mom was still going to her anger and drinking meetings and she was still an invaluable help. Well she would be when Shoko was born. Mob didn't really need the help now.

But it was still nice.

It was nice when everyone got along…as well as could be expected.

"Ramen again?" asked Shigeo. There was something in his voice, there, that Mob couldn't place. She wasn't good with voices but she was good with auras…and Shigeo's was kind of mad, there. At what she did not know. Maybe he was upset from people being mean to him at school, or maybe he missed home, or maybe he was just grumpy from the train ride. She wished that he would just tell her what was wrong. That way she could have made it better…whatever it was.

"Yes. I thought you liked ramen. I mean you used to when you were little." Said Mob as they walked down the road. There was a very new, and very good, ramen place that had just opened near the train station and Arataka said that this was the perfect time to go. They were celebrating Shigeo. He had finished another year of school and was staying with them for another summer holiday. Mob knew that he just really wanted a reason to go so far out of their way for ramen.

"He just always took us there." said Shigeo. There it was again. That same tone and that same flare of his aura.

"Why do you keep talking like that?" asked Mob

"Like what?" asked Shigeo

"That tone. You know I'm not good with tones but…but I feel like you're upset about something. Please tell me what it is so I can fix it." Said Mob

"Mom…you don't get it." Said Shigeo

"I don't. Please explain it to me." Said Mob

"I just…it's nothing." Said Shigeo. He walked a little faster, then, and she had to struggle to keep up with him…even though she was the one who knew where they were going. Well he could have just been going towards Takako's aura. She was the dot of blue on the horizon. Mob wished that he would slow down but she also figured that he just didn't realize how fast he was going. He hadn't been that tall for that long. Yes, he never would have made his eight months pregnant mother run alongside him in the summer heat on purpose.

She wished he would slow down, though.

It was hard to think of it. He was fourteen, now. Fourteen. When she was fourteen she had saved the entire world. It seemed like just yesterday he was sneaking cookies from the cupboards and building forts out of his bedding. He had been so small, small enough to be picked up and carried…but not he could have so easily carried her. He was tall, and would probably get even taller, too, if his father was anything to go off of. He was fourteen. Next year he would be fifteen…the age she was when she had him. Well she had been on the edge of fifteen when he had been born…and now that looked so, impossibly, young…

She hoped that history would not repeat itself.

He was so young. Too young. If he told her next year that he had fallen in love with a girl and they were having a baby together…she hadn't exploded in years but that might be the thing to trigger it. He was too young for all of that. He hadn't mentioned any girls, or boys, yet…and that was kind of a good thing. It was a messy business, love, and it made you do the stupidest and craziest things…or maybe that was just her. She had been the only person in her class, her grade, her school, probably the whole of Seasoning City, to have a baby at the edge of fifteen.

He had not been a mistake.

She loved Shigeo. She had loved him from the moment she set eyes on him. From that very first moment when the doctor placed him, her son, naked and wailing and so impossibly small, in her arms. She had been exhausted. She had been in pain. She had been sitting in a pool of her own blood and various other gross things. None of that had mattered when he had been placed in her arms and his aura met hers…and then he just stopped crying and looked at her…

He wasn't looking at her now.

He was looking at the ground in front of him. He really should have looked up when he walked, he might have ended up tripping and falling. She wished that he would look at her, too, because she was starting to get the feeling that he was made at her…and she didn't know why. She couldn't think of a single thing that she had done to make him mad. She called him every other day…so he probably didn't miss her…was it because she was having another baby? He had been jealous when Takako had been born…

That must have been it.

He had been four years old when his sister had been born. They said that the twos were terrible but it was the fours that really did Mob in. When Takako had been born, well after they had cleaned her and Mob up and moved them to a recovery room, Shigeo had been brought in to visit. He took one look at his little sister, one look into her big blue eyes, and declared that she needed to go back to where she came from. Everyone had a laugh at that…which only made it worse because Shigeo had been serious…and then he'd almost had an accident with his powers…which scared Takako…

They got on a lot better these days.

Of course he wasn't living at home, her home, these days. He had decided, years ago, that he wanted to go to middle school in Baked Goods City. Mob didn't know why. She figured that it must have been one of those independence things. It had been hard, letting him go, but she had no reason to say no. It wasn't as though he were living on his own or anything like that, no, he was just going to stay with his father and grandmother. That was all. He was in good hands.

Katsuya really was a good father.

Well from what Shigeo said. They had never really been together, her and Katsuya. It had been too much for them after Shigeo had been born. She had been smaller, slightly smaller than she was now, when Shigeo had been born and he had been her first baby, too, which was why she had gotten so torn up so badly. Badly enough that she hadn't been able to even walk very far let alone take care of a baby…and babies needed a lot more care than books and angry lectures from her mother could have prepared her for…and she and Katsuya hadn't been doing well to begin with…

And then it all just sort of fell apart.

He tended to shut down, Katsuya, when he got overwhelmed. The only problem was that a person could not shut down when they had a baby. Her mom had been angry with her, too angry to help out. 'You made your mistake, Shigeko, and now you and you alone have to deal with the consequences' was what she had said. Then she forbade dad and Ritsu from helping her out. Ritsu did help her out in secret…though he really didn't know much more than she did…and Sho didn't start helping out until Shigeo was much older.

Well Sho called it helping out. Mob called it running away with her baby while she was asleep and having her wake up in a panic because her baby was gone and she had no idea where he was. Sho hadn't been stealing the baby, no, he said that he was babysitting….even though that meant that the baby stayed where he was and you sat. Sho didn't see it that way. He said that he and the baby were having adventures and bonding and that she and Serizawa needed a break anyway. They needed a break….from each other, though, not Shigeo.

Though he hadn't taken the whole 'breaking up' thing very well at all.

But Sho had been and continued to be a very good babysitter…and his help had been invaluable. Still, a person could only help out so much. A baby was still stressful and being fifteen years old with a baby was even more stressful. It was like trying to fight fire with fire. You just got more fire. The stress had been a lot. The stress of having to take care of a baby, the stress having to take care of Katsuya, the stress of missing out on so many normal fifteen year old things….

Minegishi had called her relationship with Katsuya a sinking ship.

And that was why he was one of her best and wisest friends. She had gone back to work before she was ready, she just wanted to get out of that tiny one room apartment for just a few hours, and Minegishi had told her that she looked like death. He was nice like that, telling her the truth about things. He seemed mean, everyone said that he was mean, but Mob didn't see it. There was a difference between being mean and telling someone what they needed to hear.

And Minegishi always told her what she needed to hear.

Her relationship had been a sinking ship. She had been bailing out the water, which meant that she had been ignoring all of the problems, since the very beginning. That hadn't been fair to her or Serizawa. Also all of the cheating that she had done hadn't helped. No…that had no helped at all. The cheating was a big problem…she had done it twice after all.

Then three times.

And then she had decided to leave the sinking ship because she was not only hurting Serizawa but also herself and their son. Shigeo had been two when she and Serizawa completely broke up. It had been for the best. Growing up like that, with a mom and dad that shouldn't have been together in the first place, that was worse than growing up with no parents at all. Well he still had parents, a mom and dad who loved him, and they loved him much better apart than they did when they were together.

Plus he had a lot of other people who loved him, too.

Shigeo was so loved.

Though Mob felt that, maybe, he didn't realize it. He hardly said a word during lunch. That wasn't completely unlike him….she and Katsuya had never been big talkers so it stood to reason that their son wouldn't be a chatterbox either…but this was different. There was something about him….about his aura…that made Mob feel like he must have been bothered by something.

But what?

Well a lot of things could have been bothering him. He was fourteen now. She remembered herself at fourteen. At fifteen. At sixteen. Not a good time at all. He had said that it was about the obvious and also a million other things. Being fourteen that could have been literal. Divorce was hard on kids, all the books said so, and she hadn't even BEEN married to begin with…but it was still the same. Mother and father did not live together. Mother lived in one place, father live in another, and son was shuffled between two homes.

It couldn't have been easy on him.

Mob waited to talk to him. Until they were done catching up over lunch. Shigeo barely ate, unusual for him, but Arataka and Takako ate for three people so it all balanced out at least. Shigeo had been so gloomy, though, he hardly said anything to anyone. Even Sho. They has gotten on so well in the past….Mob wanted to ask him right then at there at the table what was wrong and how she, as his mother, could fix it.

But she didn't.

Because she was older, now, and less clueless. She knew that if she made a big thing out of it then everyone would make a big thing out of it and then Shigeo would feel like he was put on the spot. Plus they were in public, too, and people didn't talk about things like that in public. The things that must have been bothering him. Things about mother and father being separated, jealousy over younger siblings…even if they weren't technically siblings…well they were but they also weren't. Half siblings at best, like with Shigeo and Takako, though Shoko would legally be their cousin….it was confusing. Very confusing. If it was confusing for her at almost thirty then it was confusing for him at fourteen.

She'd talk to him when they got home.

Well that had been the plan but the first thing Shigeo had done when they got home was go straight to his and Takako's room. That made sense. End of the school year meant end of year gifts and Shigeo had made out pretty well. Videogames, the ones he had wanted since Christmas, but also a massive Gundam model. He liked Gundamn better than EVA, he said. Arataka called it adolescent rebellion.

Though she had no idea what it was that he could have been rebelling against.

"He's fourteen Mob, give him some space." Said Reigen as he scrolled through his phone. A few jobs had come in but nothing time sensitive. Well somewhat time sensitive…he'd take care of it tomorrow. He and Takako. Mob's gifts seemed to be dominant, both of her kids had them. Though Shigeo had two esper parents.

"I know that I should but I'm worried about him. You didn't see his aura. Something is bothering him…and I asked him about it at the train station and he said that a lot of stuff was bothering him…and I don't know what to do." Said Mob. She leaned back against Arataka on the couch. It was later in the day now and they had come back home to their little air conditioned bubble, thankfully. Ritsu and Sho had gone back to their own apartment, just across the way, leaving the Kageyama/Reigen family to get settled.

Which was Ritsu for 'I've had as much of Reigen as I can take for one day' even though Mob had no idea why Ritsu still didn't like Arataka. He was a good person…but for some reason Ritsu could not see that.

"He's fourteen." Said Reigen as if that answered all of Mob's questions. He knew what he had been like at fourteen and the last thing he would have wanted was his mother in his business. Reigen knew how Mob felt, though, and wanted to talk to Shigeo himself…but the only thing worse than your mother being all in your business was your stepfather being all in your business. Shigeo…he loved the kid but he was not Shigeo's father. Not really. That honor belonged to Serizawa…even though Reigen had been there practically since day one….ok, he exaggerated…but he had been there for the kid for a while. It had hurt, before, when he said that he wanted to live with Serizawa and his mother…but Reigen understood.

That didn't mean that it didn't still hurt, though.

"I know how old he is…." Said Mob. She had given birth to him, she knew what age he was. She knew how hard it was to be his age. She wished that she knew what was going on in his head. He had been like this since he moved out…and she didn't know why. Well besides the obvious.

"Come on, you remember how it was to be his age. What you were like." Said Reigen. He winced as soon as the words left his mouth. He had been thinking about himself, then, and not her. She had been only a year older than Shigeo was now when she had him…and that whole year had been a cluster fuck of momentous proportions. For everyone involved. He hoped to God that Shigeo wasn't going to repeats his parents' mistakes…not that he was a mistake. No. Even though Shigeo wasn't his Reigen was still happy that he was born…even though at the time he had been about to jump out of a window…but he had gotten better.

He had gotten Mob in the end after all.

"You don't think that he's…like me? Do you?" asked Mob. If there was some way to do it all again but still have the kids she would have. She had been fifteen when Shigeo had been born…just a child. She had thought that she was an adult, then, but she was just a child. She was in no way ready to make any of the choices she had made….and that had messed her life up pretty badly…but she had gotten Shigeo and, later on, Takako out of it. Though she had been an adult when she'd had Takako.

"He's a lot like you but I don't think that he's…getting up to…the same stuff that you were. You would have known if he was. You're his mother after all." Said Reigen. That kid was way too awkward, too gangly, too…too much like Serizawa for him to be getting up to any of the stuff that Mob had been….right?

Right?

And now he's worried. He's worried that he's going to have another mouth to feed, soon. That he's going to have a teenage esper ready to run away and start his own life because he thinks he's ready for all of that. A teenage esper in love…hopefully with a girl his own age. Having kids of his own put his relationship with Mob fully into perspective. He had been a piece of shit. He had dragged Mob into a world that she had not been ready for. If he could have done it all again he would have lied through his teeth and told her that no matter what he would always see her as his student and that it would have been impossible for him to have those feelings for her.

But he had told her to wait.

Telling a teenager to wait was like telling the sun not to rise. No matter what power you thought you had what was going to happen was going to happen. The sun was going to rise and horny teenagers were going to be horny teenagers…and also they would end up in a relationship with your best friend and then you'd go off the deep end, burn a shit ton of bridges, but rebuild them and ultimately end up with the girl of your dreams….and he knew that he should not have ended up with Mob. Fourteen years still separated them. Thirty and forty four, if he was rounding. Thirty and forty four was a hell of a lot less creepy than fifteen and twenty nine.

But still, if a guy twice his daughter's age, or his step son's, or whatever the kid growing inside of Mob's that he wasn't quite sure what his relation was to's, he'd kick some ass. The last thing he wanted for any of those kids was for their lives to end up like Mob's. It so easily could have gone down the drain. Her parents could have actually signed the papers so she could have married Serizawa, she could have ended up getting pregnant after having Shigeo, she could have ended up being Serizawa's wife for the rest of her life with a million screaming kids and a million broken dreams…but it hadn't. They had come back together….

And started this life together.

But Mob had dodged a bullet. There was no arguing with that. Even if she hadn't ended up married to Serizawa she had still been a fifteen year old mother. She'd had Shigeo just shy of her birthday…she had been so young then….so very young…

But that is neither here nor there.

"I don't know. He used to tell me everything but it's like he became a teenager and now he doesn't want to tell me anything. It's like me and my mom I guess….even though I'm nothing like her." said Mob

"Thank God for that, I'm not sure if what we'd do about the medical bills if you were." Said Reigen feeling the scar through his eyebrow that he had gotten courtesy of Hana Kageyama.

"I would never hit you….and I don't know why my mom still tries to hit you. We're married now, and I'm an adult, so I don't know what she's so upset about." Said Mob

"I slept with her fifteen year old daughter." Said Reigen. He said it quietly in case Takako was around. She was still so young. She didn't need to know the sordid details of how her parents had gotten together. Let her do the math when she got older.

"I'm not fifteen anymore. I'm not a child." Said Mob. She wasn't a child anymore….and this time it was true. Not like before. Before she had just been playing at this, at being a grown woman, at things that she had not been ready for…not that she felt totally ready for them now. There were days, still, when she woke up to Takako blaring her music and Shoko playing soccer with her organs and Arataka sleeping next to her and the only thought in her mind would be 'this is my life?' which was odd because this had been her life for quite some time now.

"I know that but I don't think that she does. Honestly I'm not sure if they'll ever stop being kids to us. I mean I still get up in the morning expecting that I'll have a baby to feed and change." Said Reigen

"That's just because I'm pregnant again. You shouldn't worry, Taka, Sho and Ritsu said that they would take care of Shoko as often as they could. She's their daughter after all. I'm just her aunt…well I mean biologically I'm her mom but Sho's her dad…but Ritsu is her uncle…and I guess that you'd be her stop father…step uncle? I'm not really sure. The government is weird about birth certificates." Said Mob. After Shigeo had been born she had learned just how weird the government could be about birth certificates. Shigeo was illegitimate and that was why he was a Kageyama, not a Serizawa. That had caused her some trouble when she married Arataka and became a Reigen. The government said that Shigeo was still a Kageyama. Illegitimate was illegitimate.

Though Mob had no idea why that mattered.

"I'm still going to help out. I'll be the best step-uncle there ever was." Said Reigen

"You'll be the only step-uncle there ever was." Said Mob with a smile. She sighed and closed her eyes. Shoko was kicking again even though she was more than big enough that she should have stopped this by now…this really was Sho's daughter….and it was still hot even with the air conditioning….but she could have so easily drifted off for a second…

No, she couldn't have.

"Mom! Dad! Shigeo's being a jerk! Punish him! Punish him!" said Takako as she ran into the living rom. Mob had no idea what had happened. There had been a flash of auras, Shigeo's and Takako's, and now this. She sat up with a groan.

"What happened?" asked Mob

"Well I was in our room-" said Takako

"Takako, you remember what your mom and I said about giving your brother some space, right? About how closed doors mean knock first and then wait for a response? And then honor that response?" asked Reigen. They needed their own rooms. They were getting to the age where they needed their own rooms. Even though, for the foreseeable future, Shigeo only lived with them part time the kids needed their own rooms. The only problem with that was money. Spirits and Such had never made a lot of money and now, even with Mob's help, they still had two other mouths to feed. Plus Mob refused to live away from her brother and his husband and her brother refused to live anywhere cheaper than this and his husband refused to live away from good schools…he was really getting into the whole 'dad' thing, so this was all that they could afford on what they made.

"We were already in our room, dad! Ok, so I was playing Final Fantasy and I needed Shigeo to beat a boss for me, he's good at that, but he was busy Skyping his dad or whatever and he wouldn't help me no matter how many times I asked so I jumped on his bed and then he threw me onto mine but that's not the worst part! No, when he did that my game got unplugged and I not only lost all of my progress but my save file got corrupted too! Punish him! Make him eat hamster food! Make him sleep naked in the alley! Beat him with wet noodles!" said Takako. The room shook. She was losing control….but she had a good reason to! Older brothers were the worst, she didn't know why she had to have one. Mom should have just stuck to having girls. An older sister would have been much better. At least an older sister wouldn't have been all mopey or whatever. If Shigeo was so homesick then he should have stayed in Baked Goods City. It wasn't like she missed him….that much….

"Takako, sometimes people need space and-" Said Reigen. The perils of esper kids…sometimes they lost control. He understood that. He didn't much like it, at some point someone was going to get hurt, but he understood that it was an unavoidable thing when one had esper kids.

"You talk to her, I'll talk to him." said Mob as she got up from the couch. He had lost control. He could have hurt Takako. She had lost control, once, and hurt Ritsu. It had been something that had haunted her for her entire life. She did not want that for her son. That was why she had to talk to him. She walked, or rather waddled, down the hallway to her son's room…where someone had taped up a sign that said 'go away' in both kanji and hiranga.

Mob knocked on the door.

"Shigeo, it's me." Said Mob when there was no response.

"I know, mom, I can see your aura." Said Shigeo. More silence. It dragged on and on and on.

"Can I come in?" asked Mob finally. There was more silence but at least the door swung open. Mob stepped through and over piles of books and clothes and assorted junk. She'd have them clean their room later, not now, because this was not about a messy room. Her son was laying on his bed facing the wall. He had to tuck his legs in to fit on his mattress. The Pokémon bedspread was faded, too.

He was too big.

"Can I sit down?" asked Mob. Again, silence, broken only by a stuffed Pokémon plush toy being tossed telekinetically out of the way. Mob sat down beside her son, the bed groaned under her weight, and she let her aura touch his.

"She was being annoying." Said Shigeo. He knew what she was doing there. She was there to tell him off for tossing his sister off of his bed. Well he stood by what he did. She was being a pain. At least at home nobody ever jumped on his bed when he was trying to have a private conversation. Dad missed him and Shigeo had to check in or else dad would get all sad and stuff. That was never fun.

"So you lost control-" said Mob

"No, I didn't. She was being annoying so I tossed her onto her own bed. I didn't mean to unplug her game but I did mean to toss her out of the way. She was jumping on my bed while I was trying to talk to dad." Said Shigeo

"That's…don't throw your sister around. You could have hurt her. Trust me, you never want to hurt your little sibling. When I was eleven-" said Mob

"I know the story, mom. When you were eleven some older guys tried to rob you and uncle Ritsu so you lost control and hurt everyone. You've told me that story before. I told you, before, too that my control is better than that." Said Shigeo

"I know. I just…you should still be careful. I'm not mad at you and neither is Taka. We're just concerned-" said Mob

"Why? Why are you so worried? I'm not going to lose control, I said so." Said Shigeo

"It's not about that, Shige, it's about…can you turn around? It's weird talking to your back." Said Mob. There was a moment of silence before Shigeo turned around. He still wasn't looking at her but at least she could see him. His eyes were red rimmed and his face was flushed. She knew that face. She hadn't seen that face in years but she still knew it…and it still hurt her seeing that face. That upset face on her only son….

He had been crying.

Mob hadn't seen her son cry in ages. One day he had fallen down, scraped his knee, and then bit back his tears with the proclamation that he was now, officially, too old to cry. He stuck to it no matter how many times she and Taka told him that there was nothing wrong with crying. Big boys could cry, there was nothing wrong with that.

But he hadn't listened.

And even now, at fourteen, he was still fighting back tears it seemed…and Mob had no clue why. She wasn't good with people, even her own son it seemed, but she was his mother and it was her job to fix whatever it was that was upsetting him.

"Shige…talk to me. Tell me what's wrong. We used to talk about everything. Why are you crying? What's bothering you?" asked Mob

"A lot of stuff." Said Shigeo

"Such as?" asked Mob

"I don't want to talk about it." Said Shigeo

"Please….if you don't tell me what's bothering you then I won't be able to fix it. I'm your mom, it's my job to fix-" said Mob

"You can't fix it…nobody can." Said Shigeo

"I can try. Please, Shige, just talk to me. What's wrong? Do you miss your dad and grandma? Do you want to head back? Because if you do I can see when the next train is and you…you can head back." Said Mob even though that was the very last thing that she wanted. She so rarely saw him these days…though she supposed that it was only fair. Katsuya had missed out on so much of his son's childhood so it was only fair that she missed out on his teenage years…

"I just….why did I have to be a Kageyama?!" said Shigeo. He had been keeping this in, trying to keep it in, but it just came out. All of it. All of what he was feeling came out in that one question….and he knew that he should not have said that. No. He'd just end up hurting mom's feelings…and then hurting his sister/cousin too….and he didn't want that. He just wanted…he didn't even know what it was he wanted.

"Oh. Because my parents are Kageyamas. Well my mom was from a different family but when women get married they take the same last names as their husbands. Since I wasn't married to your dad you were a Kageyama." Said Mob. It wasn't fair, how the government thought that being from married parents mattered more than being from unmarried parents, but there was nothing that she could do about it. Nothing that she could do about a lot of stupid things the government said.

'No…I mean….I mean why am I so different?! I hate being so different!" said Shigeo

"We're all different. That's what makes the world interesting. I know how hard it can be when you're very different from the people around you-" said Mob

"I don't mean powers, mom, I mean like…I'm the only kid in my class with a different last name than his dad. I'm the only kid in my class who has parents who aren't together. I'm the only kid in my class who…who…" said Shigeo. This part he could not say. He could not hurt his mom like that. He had talked about it with dad, briefly, and it had hurt dad terribly…and he did not want to hurt mom, too.

"Who….what? Shigeo…I don't understand. I'm not good at these sorts of things but I'm trying my best. I'm sorry that people still tease you about…about the circumstances of your birth…but really it's none of their business. Your father and I love you, that's what matters. You were born loved, Shigeo, that's the only thing that matters." Said Mob. Shigeo had been teased since he had been a small child. She had been teased as well. She knew how people could be…and she wished that there was some way that she could have protected her son from the world…but there wasn't.

"It's hard, ok? People figure out that…that you and dad aren't married and stuff…and then they find out that I'm related to you because they Google my name and…and they find you and that Spirits and Such website and…and then people ask me why my parents aren't married and…and it's not even about that. It's just…" said Shigeo

"Just what?" asked Mob. She didn't understand why people were so concerned about things like that, people's parents being married and all of that. Love was the only thing that mattered…but of course the rest of the world didn't see it that way. There must have just been something that she had been missing, that was all. Some missing piece that would have told her why it mattered so much…and if she found that piece then she could have helped her son…but she could not find that piece…

"it's weird for me, too. Mom…mom this whole thing is just weird for me." Said Shigeo

"That your dad and I aren't married? Shigeo…he and I…sometimes people are better parents when they're apart than they are together. Your dad and I…things weren't good between the two of us and I didn't want to raise you in an environment like that. I knew that you would be better off with the two of us apart." Said Mob. She knew, by the time Shigeo had been born, that being with Katsuya had been a mistake. That what she felt for him had not been love but instead a combination of guilt and obligation…and that she could not raise a child in that environment. Mom and dad were right not to sign the papers that said that she could have gotten married. That would have been a mistake. Her happiness mattered. If she was unhappy then how could she have raised her son properly?

"It's not even that it's just….I did the math. I did the math back at dad's birthday. I helped grandma make the cake and it said 'happy forty sixth birthday' on it and then I just….I did the math. Dad's forty six and you're thirty, almost, which means that you and dad got together when you….when you were in middle school like me." Said Shigeo

"Oh." Said Mob. What else could she say? There was no explaining it away and she was never going to lie to her own child. She had given birth to Shigeo when she was in middle school. Those were the facts of the situation.

"And then I just…I couldn't stop thinking about how dad was way older than you and how…how Reigen's way older than you and I talked to dad about everything and he said that you and Reigen…went out…before I was born and that just…it grossed me out a lot, ok!" said Shigeo. The room shook. That was him. He hadn't meant to, it just happened. Mom made it better. She stopped the room from shaking and smoothed down the spike in his aura. She was looking at him, now. Her face was as impassive as ever but he could see her aura. She was thinking. Had he made her feel bad? Had he ruined the whole summer? He should have just kept his mouth shut. Now everything was totally ruined and it was all his fault!

"What…what exactly did your dad say?" asked Mob. She and Katsuya had never really sat down and talked about what they would tell Shigeo if he ever started asking about the age gap between them. To the two of them it had been a nonissue in the beginning. He loved her, she thought that she loved him, and then they had a child together. That was then and this was now. Mob was older, now, and had her own children….and she did not want them to do as she had done. Love was still love, she believed in that, but she also knew that love could lead a person to do the stupidest, craziest, most reckless things…and she did not want that for her son and daughter.

"Dad said that he met you when you were fourteen and you stopped Uncle Sho's dad from taking over the world. He said that he fell in love with you after he knew you for a year and then you guys went out for a little bit and then I was born…and he told me that you and Reigen went out too…and also that you and…he told me that sometimes people fall in love and sometimes people fall out of love. He told me that even though he still loves you he understands that you don't love him, you love Reigen, and that it hurt but at least…at least he got me out of it." Said Shigeo. He felt a hand in his hair. Mom's.

"Your dad…he's right. He didn't tell you any lies…and I guess that you're old enough to know the truth…" said Mob. She wished that Katsuya had waited a few years before telling Shigeo. She wasn't ashamed of how young she was, no, she was ashamed at how stupid and reckless she had been. She did not want Shigeo to do as she had done….and she also didn't want to sour him on the concept of love. He was at that age, that age where he would want to find a boy or girl to be with, and she wanted that for him. The happiness that came with loving and being loved….she just wanted it for him without having a child or biting off more than he could chew in any other way.

She never wanted to hear the words 'I'm an adult' pass his lips until he reached the age of majority.

"But I don't…the truth is so…so weird! And gross! It's like…how am I supposed to look at dad, my own father, the same way after knowing all of this? And Reigen, too! No wonder mom and dad and Uncle Ritsu are always so mean to him…this whole thing is just…just…gross!" said Shigeo

"Shigeo…Shige….I'm sorry. I'm sorry that…that you're so weirded out by all of this. Just…sometimes you fall in love with someone you shouldn't…or at least you think that you're in love with them. Your dad and I…he's a lot older than I am but that didn't bother me then and it doesn't bother me now. Sometimes people….sometimes it doesn't matter…and sometimes it does, how old the other person is…" said Mob. She wanted to tell her son that he was never to do as she had done but she also didn't want to be a total hypocrite, either.

"So then what if I get a girlfriend and she's your age? Huh? Then what?" asked Shigeo sitting up. He wondered if mom and dad would have thought that it was ok. Age mattered. Adults were so…he didn't like any adults like that. He didn't know any adults well enough to like them like that. The only person he liked was the girl who sat in front of him…or that girl who was always playing DS in the library in the reference section…or that third year girl who ran the gaming club….and even then the thought of going out with a third year, someone almost in high school, is kind of weird…..

"That would….Shigeo…Shige don't do that. I'm trying not to be a hypocrite but…but just…only date people your own age, ok? I love you and I'm happy that you were born but…but I was not ready to have you. I was in no way, shape, or form ready to be your mother…or to be your father's wife." Said Mob trying to find the right words. Arataka would have known the right words…but she's not going to bring him into this. This has to between her and her son only. Maybe Katsuya, too, if he were around but not Taka. Not that she didn't love him, and not that he hadn't always been a big part of Shige's life, but this was a biological parent sort of thing, it felt like.

"But you married Reigen…" muttered Shigeo. He wished, when he was younger he would wish, that his mom and dad were just like everyone else's mom and dad. That they were married and had the same last name and had a house and got along and all of that. He didn't know what he wished for now.

"Arataka and I….things were very complicated between us. Between Taka, your dad, and I and…and you are too young to know everything that went on. When you're older I'll tell you the whole truth but right now you do not want to know. Trust me on this. Just know that things were very complicated between the two of us back then and I…I made some mistakes when it came to Arataka and your dad….ok? I loved…love can be very complicated sometimes and I…I don't want you to be scared of it-" said Mob

"I'm not scared of love, mom, I'm fourteen. I don't think that girls have cooties or anything." Said Shigeo

"I know that you aren't afraid of girls…and that's what I'm afraid of. I don't want you to think that love is a bad thing. I don't want you to look at what happened between your father and Arataka and I and think…think that you never want to have a relationship because of that. I want you to meet someone, someone your own age, and I want you to fall in love and I want you to be happy." Said Mob

"You and dad weren't happy…" said Shigeo

"Shige…we were happy for a bit, just a bit, but it was…he and I were not right for each other. Sometimes you fall in love and sometimes you fall out of it…and sometimes you realize that you mistook something else for love. Relationships can be messy…and they can be even messier when there's an age gap like that. Your dad and I…we were at different places in our lives. He was in his thirties and he wanted…he wanted a wife. He wanted a wife and I was your age….all I wanted was a boyfriend. We wanted different things and I…I tried to want what he wanted but I was not ready. I love you, Shige, and I always will but…but I was very young when I had you." Said Mob

"I noticed." Said Shigeo sarcastically. As usual sarcasm was lost on his mother.

"You're very young now. A woman…a woman, not a girl, will want things from you that you are too young to give. You're too young to be someone's father, Shigeo." Said Mob

"Mom! I'm not even…I mean I've never had se- I'm not having….I don't even have a girlfriend yet!" said Shigeo

"One day you will and just….you are too young to be someone's father. You're going to…you're at an age where you're going to want to have sex and-" said Mob

"Please! Please mom, don't talk about sex! I know about sex! I know about birth control and being careful and consent and all of that. I know about saying 'yes' and saying 'no' and condoms and the pill and stuff like that! They told us at school! Please, mom, don't talk about sex…" said Shigeo. The only thing worse than hearing your mother say the word 'sex' was you saying the word 'sex'…but maybe if he said it enough times then she wouldn't want to talk about it anymore. They talked about it at school, he had Google, and dad had even told him about it…well he mostly said 'don't get anyone pregnant' but that still counted. He did not need to hear it from his mother too!

"Shige…they told you about saying 'yes' and 'no' and about protection but they…they don't teach you what's important." Said Mob

"What's more important than not getting someone pregnant?" asked Shigeo. He could not think of anything worse than getting a girl pregnant. He didn't have a job, his own place, or any idea how to even take care of a baby and…and that was what mom was getting at. She hadn't been ready to have him and she didn't want him to have a baby…but he was there so she had….was he a mistake? No…no. Mom…mom and dad loved him…and dad even told him to his face that he was not a mistake….

"Knowing the difference between being in love with someone and just wanting to have sex with them. Just because you want to have sex with someone…that does not mean that you love them…and having sex doesn't make you an adult. Sex is…it's a lot of things. It feels good, it affirms love, but it's also a big responsibility. Shigeo…I love you and even if I could turn back time and do it all again I would still have had you…but I don't want you to have a child at your age. When you date someone so much older than you…they're going to want different things than you do. Things that you are not ready for." Said Mob

"Mom…was I a mistake?" asked Shigeo. There was a pause before he was scooped up into a hug. One with bodies and auras. A mom hug.

"No. You were not a mistake. You are my son and I love you. I have never once regretted your being alive. I made a lot of mistakes when I was your age but you are not one of them. Do you understand? You are in no way a mistake." Said Mob holding her son as close as she could. She had made so many mistakes in the months leading up to his birth…but she loved him. She wasn't in love with who she had him with but she loved her son just the same.

She just wished that she had been older when she'd had him.

If she had been older then she would have been able to take care of him better. Then she would have been more together. Then she…she would have had him with the man she had been in love with in the first place….but that was neither here nor there. This was her son and she loved him more than anything else in the whole wide world…well, as much as her other child…and that was the truth.

"But you were talking like I was. You were telling me how hard it was when I was born and how hard it was on you and dad and-" said Shigeo

"It was hard because…because of how young I was. I wanted you. I loved you. I still love you….but I would have been a better mother to you if I had waited. I love you and I want…I want you to be happy but…but I want you to be young, too. I want you to enjoy your youth and not to…to do what I have done. I love you and I don't regret having you but that time in my life…it was not an easy one. I just don't want you to get into something that you're not ready for. I love you and….and your father loves you, too. Even if we aren't together we still love you…and that's the truth." Said Mob

"Mom…I love you too. I love you but….I guess that it's still kind of weird for me knowing….everything. About you and dad, I mean. You and dad and…Reigen. I mean I like him a lot but….I just…when dad told me about how you and Reigen went out before you and dad went out…the whole thing was weird and I was feeling weird about that…" said Shigeo. He felt another aura, and a kick. Shoko. That was weird, too, but he wasn't going to bring that up now. Not uncle Sho and Uncle Ritsu, that wasn't weird at all, but about how Shoko was his sister and his cousin….that was kind of a lot…but not as much as knowing that his mom had been in middle school when she had him.

"It's ok to feel weird. The whole thing is and was….it was weird. Shige, you can feel however you want. Just know that I love you, your dad loves you…and Arataka loves you too. You are so loved Shigeo…so very loved…." Said Mob as she held her son close despite her unborn child's protests. Shigeo didn't know the whole truth, not yet, and she was not going to tell him…now. Not now. He wasn't ready to hear the whole story yet.

The parts about the cheating.

The fighting.

All of it. Those were not things that anyone wanted to know about their parents at any age….but especially not fourteen. No. Mob knew that the best thing to do for her son was to let him be fourteen for as long as possible. Fourteen and then fifteen and sixteen and so on and so forth. The truth, the whole messy truth, would have been heartbreaking for him now.

And she was done breaking hearts.

Nothing broke like a heart. It was hard to pick up, to put back together, and even when you thought that you'd collected all the pieces there could still be one or two missing. Heartbreak didn't have to be romantic, no, it just had to be painful…and there was no pain like heartbreak….

After all, nothing breaks like a heart.


End file.
